A Golden Opportunity - 1987
by Reika-Hell-Flower
Summary: The day I signed the contract I knew I was signing something more than that. I was sealing my fate. It may sound dramatic, but it's how I felt. And now I know I was right. Everyone has their destiny to fulfill, and apparently this was mine. To have it all taken away when I was almost done…
1. Chapter 1 - First Night

**Disclaimer: I do not own "Five Nights at Freddy's" or its characters.**

* * *

This was a bad idea.

The more he looked around him, at the office where he'd be spending six hours per night, the more he thought that he was not cut up for this job. Everything looked so god-damn creepy…

From the drawings on the walls, to the posters of the animatronics, and the _lack of doors_ … The office had zero doors, for God knows what reason, leaving the hallway in front of him as a dark and eerie open passageway for anyone – or any _thing_ – that could want to pay him a visit. The new night guard cleared his throat and tried to straighten himself to look more confident. He might be freaking out on the inside, but he could at least try to display some fake bravery.

Jeremy Fitzgerald didn't like scary things. No scary stories, no scary movies, no anything remotely creepy. Looking at all the eerie children-made drawings that were displayed on the walls was not helping him feel any more comfortable in that office. Neither was the idea of having animatronics walking around. He knew that Freddy Fazbear's Pizza was popular for its walking and talking robots, but the notion of the robots being able to walk around during the night as they pleased did not make him happy. He could only hope that they would not go anywhere near his office.

"Honey, this is a great job opportunity for you!" his mother had said. "You should take it! I know you don't like the idea of working at night, but maybe if you do a good job you'll get switched to day shift."

That was the sole reason why he had agreed to accept the job offer really – the prospect of not staying on the night shift for that long. He knew he had to find a job to help his mother and sister, and he really couldn't be picky about it. His younger sister wanted to go to college, and so did he, but for that they had to get money, and to get money, he needed a job. After his father died at war, his mother was the only one supporting the family. He could not disappoint her.

" _Alright Jeremy, put yourself together,"_ he thought. _"This is no big deal! All you have to do is watch over the robots. No problem!"_

He grabbed the remote control and turned on the monitors. By using the remote control, he could check the different camera views that were displayed on the monitors.

First, there was the show stage. Three of the animatronics were there, motionless and expressionless – Toy Freddy, Toy Bonnie and Toy Chica. Jeremy had grown used to call them that because of a family friend, who had been working for Fazbear Entertainment for some time. Then he checked the camera for the main hall, just to pass some time, seeing as there was nothing of interest there, and then the game area. That was his favorite area in the pizzeria.

There were some kids' rides to the right, including a carousel that depicted animals similar to the original animatronics rather than the Toy Bots. The only animatronic there was one named Balloon Boy, if Jeremy remembered correctly, who handed out balloons to the kids. To him, Balloon Boy was the least scary robot, probably because he looked like a kid.

When his clock announced midnight, he looked eagerly at the phone. It started ringing within seconds, which made him sigh of relief. He _did_ leave a message, thank God. He leaned back on the chair and the message started playing on its own.

" _ **Uh, hello? Hello, hello?"**_

Jeremy chuckled. He would recognize that verbal tic anywhere.

Phil Grayson, the man who was talking on the message, was the head of security at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, and the one who offered him the job of night guard. He had been a family friend for years, since he met his father in the army. He was a relaxed and kind man that Jeremy really liked – to him, he was practically pretty much family.

" _ **Uh, hello and welcome to your new summer job at the new and improved Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. Uh, I'm here to talk you through some of the things you can expect to see during your first week here and to help you get started down this new and exciting career path."**_

The night guard frowned for a second. "Summer job"? They were in the beginning of November, how could it be summer? Oh well, maybe Phil was reading the intro out of a paper and forgot to change it to actual time…

" _ **Uh, now, I want you to forget anything you may have heard about the old location, you know. Uh, some people still have a somewhat negative impression of the company… Uh… that old restaurant was kind of left to rot for quite a while, but I-I want to reassure you, Fazbear Entertainment is committed to family fun and above all, safety."**_

He had heard quite a lot about Fazbear Entertainment. It was part of the reason why he felt so creeped out about being there at night, in fact. His friends had been very quick to remind him of all the stories about how kids were killed and stuffed into suits, how the staff was cursed to either go missing or end up going crazy, told with all of the unnecessary details in their gory glory. Jeremy didn't need any more nightmares, thank you very much.

The message went on. _**"They've spent a small fortune on these new animatronics, uh, facial recognition, advanced mobility, they even let them walk around during the day, heh. Isn't that neat?"**_ Phil paused to clear his throat before going on. _**"But most importantly, they're all tied into some kind of criminal database, so they can detect a predator a mile away. Heck, we should be paying them to guard you!"**_

" _Haha, funny,"_ Jeremy thought sarcastically, though he was suppressing a small smile. It wasn't the first time that Phil joked about how he still looked like a kid even though he was 20 years-old.

" _ **Uh, now that being said, no new system's without its… kinks. Uh… you're only the second guard to work at that location,"**_ Phil informed. _**"Uh, the first guy finished his week, but complained about… conditions."**_

Jeremy was no longer amused with the message. What did he mean, "conditions"?

" _ **Uh, we switched him over to day shift… So, hey, lucky you, right? Uh mainly he expressed concern that certain characters seemed to move around at night, and even attempted to get into his office."**_

The night guard was now looking at the phone in absolute horror. That was the one thing he did not want to happen! Phil told him the robots would be walking around, but he didn't say anything about them trying to get into the office! And there were _no doors_ to keep them out…

" _ **Uh mainly he expressed concern that certain characters seemed to move around at night, and even attempted to get into his office. Now, from what we know, that should be impossible. Uh, that restaurant should be the safest place on earth."**_

"Yeah right," Jeremy muttered with some annoyance, looking at the open hallway in front of him.

As much as he liked Phil, it had always been obvious the man had a very different sense of "danger" from everyone else. He just didn't seem to get as scared by things as normal people did. He even found some gory and scary stuff amusing! The complete opposite of Jeremy, that's for sure…

Oblivious to Jeremy's growing worries, Phil carried on. _**"So, while our engineers don't really have an explanation for this, the working theory is that… the robots were never given a proper 'night more'. So when it gets quiet, they think they're in the wrong room, so then they go try to find where the people are, and in this case, that's your office."**_

" _Great…"_

" _ **So, our temporary solution is this: there's a music box over by the Prize Counter, and it's rigged to be wound up remotely."**_ While Phil talked, Jeremy checked the camera view of the Prize Counter, spotting a large toy box in the darkness. He looked at his remote, and, sure enough, there was a button there that was labeled "music box". _**"So, just every once in a while, switch over to the Prize Counter video feed and wind it up for a few seconds. It doesn't seem to affect all of the animatronics, but it does affect… one of them…"**_

Phil cleared his throat again, but this it time it sounded like he wanted to avoid saying the name of "that one animatronic" the music box controlled. That should be some creepy robot if even Phil didn't like it.

" _ **Uh, and as for the rest of them, we have an easier solution. You see, there may be a minor glitch in the system, something about robots seeing you as an endoskeleton without his costume on, and wanting to stuff you into a suit…"**_

"… What?" Jeremy blinked nervously, squeezing the remote control in his hands. "What do you mean 'stuffing'?!"

" _ **So hey, we've given you an empty Freddy Fazbear head, problem solved! You can put it on anytime, and leave it on for as long as you want. Eventually anything that wandered in, will wander back out."**_

Jeremy searched the drawers of the desk until he found a mask of Freddy Fazbear. Well, at least he had some way to trick the animatronics and get them to leave him alone… He still wanted to know what that whole thing about the robots stuffing people into suits was though.

" _ **Uh, something else worth mentioning is kind of the quirky modern design of the building,"**_ Phil said. _**"You may have noticed there are no doors for you to close, heh."**_

He sure did! Whose brilliant brainchild was that anyway?

" _ **But hey, you have a light! And even though your flashlight can run out of power, the building cannot. So, don't worry about the place going dark."**_

Jeremy picked up the flashlight that was next to the mask on the drawer. He couldn't see how that flashlight was going to help him, but hey, if Phil mentioned it, it should be important.

" _ **Well, I think that's it. Uh, you should be golden. Uh, check the lights, put on the Freddy head if you need to, uh, keep the music box wound up, piece of cake. Have a good night, and I'll talk to you tomorrow."**_

Now he was even more nervous about his job than before. Why did the robots have to try and get inside his office…? He was going to freak out as soon as he saw one of them in the hallway, he just knew it…

"I want to leave…" he muttered sadly to himself. "I don't wanna be here anymore…"

He looked at the monitor, which showed the camera view of the show stage, and stared at the Toy Bots that stood there. Toy Freddy, Toy Chica… but where was Toy Bonnie?

" _No! No, no, no, no…"_

Trying not to start panicking so early on the night, he searched for the missing blue bunny in all the camera views. He ended up finding him on Cam 03, which showed Party Room nº3. Toy Bonnie was looking around at the tables and checking the party hats, his guitar in hand, when he seemed to notice he was being watched.

Jeremy gulped, as Toy Bonnie looked straight at the camera. The robot smirked. He waved indolently, pointed at his eyes and then at the camera, as if he was telling him "I'm watching you too".

" _Stupid bunny,"_ Jeremy thought angrily. _"Is he making fun of me?"_

That shouldn't be a surprise, after all. Phil had warned him that the bunny's attitude wasn't the best. According to the head of security, Toy Bonnie was always making fun of the staff.

But oh well, if he was just making fun of him, then it wasn't so bad. He wasn't actually meaning to do him any harm, at least.

Jeremy sighed, and checked on the other robots. They were all still in their proper place. It was just his first night, so it should be no problem. It was going to be easy.

* * *

" _I wish I could go back in time so I could slap myself in the face for accepting this job…"_

This was what the new night guard, Jeremy, was thinking as he looked at something rather unnerving. He was halfway through his first night as a night watchman, and even though kept telling himself the robots were probably just messing around and didn't mean any harm, he couldn't shrug off how creepy they looked, especially at night.

Toy Bonnie was now crouching near the opening that led to the right air vent, on Party Room nº2, looking at it with mild curiosity as if he was contemplating whether or not he should climb in.

Figuring it wouldn't hurt to try, Jeremy clicked on the button of the speaker he had next to his desk. "Umm… Toy Bonnie...?"

The bunny glanced at the ceiling, from which the night guard's voice was booming. One of his ears shot upright and he raised an eyebrow.

Maybe it would be best to try and appease the bunny… "Uh, _Mr._ Toy Bonnie, could you _not_ go in that vent right now? Please…? You could… uh, you could damage your suit! Yeah! Y-you wouldn't want to get it all dirty and, uhh… stuff… R-right?"

For a moment, it seemed the robot was going to ignore his words entirely. But then, the bunny grinned, shrugged in fake humility and stood up. "Alright pal, I'll humor ya this time. But I won't be going easy on ya all night."

And he disappeared in the shadows of the party room.

Jeremy let out a long sigh of relief. He managed to avoid him getting to close to him, but only for a while. He wasn't too sure how long it would take for the bunny to get bored and get back at bothering him. Probably five minutes. And what did he mean "going easy" on him? What, did he think they were playing some sort of game in which the robots had to try and get in the office and he had to keep them out? That didn't sound like a fun game to him at all…

"Alright, so far so good… Let's check out the other bots…"

* * *

It had been one hour and a half, and nothing much had happened. He could tell Toy Bonnie's boredom was due to come back any second and that he wouldn't just be "chilling" at his office forever. At least so far, he was the only one Jeremy had to keep watch over.

He took a second to wind up the music box before checking on Toy Foxy. The robotic fox was lying on the floor, staring sadly at the drawings that were on the walls. Jeremy couldn't help but feel sad for the poor thing. As creepy as she was, it didn't sound fair for her to be torn apart on a daily basis just to keep the kids entertained. Sure, a robot didn't feel physical pain, but from what he had heard from Phil, they had emotions, they could be _emotionally_ hurt. And if there was a robot that looked like she was completely broken emotionally, that would be Toy Foxy. She just didn't seem to even want to be around kids anymore. Not that he could blame her.

He cleared his throat and pressed the button of the speaker again. He had no idea why he thought that talking to the robots would make him feel any better, but in the end, it did. It made them seem more human, and less like creepy bots that haunt him in the night.

"Toy Foxy?" he called on the speaker. The fox looked up, startled, looking for the source of the noise. From what he could tell, her eyes were not lit, and she probably couldn't see a thing. "It's, uh, the night guard. The name's Jeremy. Um, are you… are you alright over there?"

The fox's ears, which were lying low, perked up a little bit and she smiled weakly, nodding. She opened her mouth in an attempt to talk, but the only sound that came out was loud static. She closed her mouth quickly and went back to mourning on the dark corner, probably thinking she had scared the guard.

" _The poor thing… Can't even talk now…"_ Jeremy thought, almost feeling angry at the kids that picked her apart in the first place and started this whole thing.

Not wanting to feel depressed over a robot all night, he checked on Balloon Boy. The robot was in the exact same spot as before, sitting on the floor and looking at his balloons absent-mindedly. He looked bored beyond belief. Hopefully he wouldn't take a page off of Toy Bonnie's book and start bothering the guard as a way to pass time…

Jeremy stared at child-like robot for a while. Then Balloon Boy looked at the camera with the same bored look. He took out a pen from the table behind him and started writing something on the sign he held in his hands. Once he was done with writing, he turned the sign towards the camera. Jeremy adjusted his glasses so he could read what it said.

" **What are you staring at me for? Go check on Toy Chica, you dweeb."**

The night guard almost crushed the remote he had in his hands in the panic to change to another camera view. Sure enough, Toy Chica was no longer on the show stage next to Toy Freddy. He looked for her and found her on the main hall.

Jeremy gulped. She was missing her beak, and her eyes were black. He could have sworn she had her beak on stage… The chicken giggled and waved at the camera, as if she was mocking him. What were these robots doing…?

"Ugh why is this happening to me…?" he groaned.

Before he could wallow in self-pity any longer, he heard some weird sounds, like something banging on metal. He frowned and checked the camera views, to see if any of the robots was messing around with anything, but instead he found that Toy Bonnie had slipped inside the right air vent while he wasn't looking.

"When did that happen?!" he yelped, staring nervously at the camera.

He heard snickering coming from the vent. Of course, Toy Bonnie could now hear him, and he was obviously finding his stress to be highly amusing. Damn that stupid bunny!

He winded the music box and checked on Toy Chica. She was not near the bathrooms anymore.

"Oh no…" the night guard muttered worriedly. "Oh no, no…"

A giggle right in front of him made him shiver. He dared a slow peek over the fan he had on the desk and pointed the flashlight at the dark open hallway in front of him. Toy Chica was there, tilting her head as she grinned at him.

"Hi ~"

"GAH!"

Jeremy put on the Freddy mask so quickly he almost ripped his ears off. But he didn't care about that. That robot was _right there_. Right there – staring at him with those hollow eyes… He knew – kind of – that she didn't really mean him any harm, and that she was probably just playing, but he was too scared to be calm.

Toy Chica's smile faltered, and she looked confused. "Oh my, where did the night guard go?" she asked innocently, recovering her smile. "Are you a new animatronic?"

Well, that was interesting. So Phil was right – the mask did work! Even though Toy Chica had seen him, now that he was wearing a mask it seemed like she did not recognize him as a human anymore.

He had to think fast now. "Uhh… Yeah! I am, sure. My name's, um, Jerry. Yep, Jerry Fazbear."

The chicken seemed extremely happy. "Nice to meet you, Jerry! Are you supposed to be related to Freddy?"

Jeremy nodded quickly.

"Well, I'm sure he'll be happy to have himself a new sibling," Toy Chica chirped pleasantly. "Oh, by the way, I'm Chica! Look, if you see a human walking around, he's the night guard, so don't hurt him okay? We're just playing a game to see if we can catch him, but it's just for fun, you know?"

" _Fun, sure, oh I'm having a lot of fun here…"_ Jeremy thought sarcastically.

"Who're you talking to Chica?"

The night guard froze, looking at a figure that emerged from his right from the corner of his eye. Toy Bonnie had entered the office. He stood right in front of Jeremy and bent over with a mischievous grin.

"Hey, don't think I've ever seen you here before…" he commented. "You sure look a lot like Freddy…"

"That's Jerry!" Toy Chica said promptly. "He's new!"

Toy Bonnie looked at him quizzically. "Funny, I didn't know about that. You would have thought that they'd tell us something."

"Oh, you see, I-I'm actually not going to join you on stage," Jeremy lied quickly. "I'm just supposed to, you know… Watch over the office while the night guard is, uhh, out…"

"Where is that guy anyway?" the bunny inquired, crossing his arms. "I can't believe he chose to go out for a snack just when I'm about to catch him! I was this close to win!"

"No need to be in a hurry, we can try again tomorrow," Toy Chica reasoned, turning away. "It's almost 6 AM, we should get going. Bye, Jerry, it was great to meet you!"

Jeremy waved awkwardly, while still keeping an eye on the blue bunny.

Toy Bonnie huffed and followed the chicken down the hallway, looking very annoyed over not having won the "game".

As soon as they were out of sight, Jeremy took out the mask and took in a deep breath. The damn mask was almost suffocating. And that had been way too close! But from now on, he'd have to keep up this "Jerry Fazbear" persona if he wanted to keep the robots away and not let them "win".

He looked at the watch, just in time to see it announce 6 AM. Well, he made it past the first night. If all the nights were like that, then maybe it wouldn't so bad after all! Sure, it was a bit stressful having them that close to him, but it had all worked out in the end.

What could go wrong…?


	2. Chapter 2 - Second Night

**Disclaimer: I do not own "Five Nights at Freddy's" or its characters.**

* * *

"Alright… You can do this. Last night wasn't so bad, was it? You got this! No problem…"

Jeremy whimpered silently as he picked up the remote, looking sadly at the button that winded up the music box. Pep-talking himself was taking him nowhere.

Yes, he knew the Toy Bots were just playing some weird game of "catch" or "tag" or whatever, and yes, he knew they did not intend on hurting him, but, in the end, it really didn't matter – he still thought they were creepy as hell. Being all alone in that office with nothing but the prospect of hearing Phil Grayson's disembodied voice didn't make it better either. God damnit, he was such a wimp…

"C'mon, Jer, it's not so bad!" his sister had said while tackling him. "This will be great for you to face your fears! Honestly, I think this job is the best thing that could have happened to you."

He couldn't disagree more with that statement, but he kept his mouth shut. As usual, he just nodded and smiled. Whenever someone told him it was or the best, that it would help him in some way, he just nodded and smiled. Everyone always had something to say about how he should live his life anyway: "Jeremy, do this, you'll get braver!", "Jeremy do that, you'll get the ladies", whatever that meant…

He sighed and adjusted his glasses. Oh well. They wanted the best for him in the end. So the best thing to do was just _nod and smile_. He could not disappoint them…

The phone started ringing, which startled the night guard. He was so lost in his thoughts he hadn't even noticed it was already midnight.

" _ **Ah, hello, hello! Uh, see, I told you your first night wouldn't be a problem. You're a natural!"**_

Jeremy grimaced, switching through the camera views. "Suuure…"

" _ **Uh, by now I'm sure you've noticed the older models sitting in the back room. Uh, those are from the previous location. We just use them for parts now."**_

He checked Cam 08. For a second, he thought maybe the camera was not working, but then he turned on the light, and he could see something that made him whimper loudly.

The old robots, which he had only seen in photos, were sitting on the floor. They were the ones that were originally made for the very first pizzeria the franchise opened, back in 1971. He had heard what kind of personality they used to have from Phil, and he kind of wished he had to deal with those rather than the Toy Bots. At least, from what Phil told him, Bonnie was a sweetheart who was just as much of a scaredy-cat as he was.

But now, Bonnie looked so creepy that Jeremy was certain that if the bunny saw his reflection in the mirror he would end up scaring himself. He had no face, but the LSD lights of is red eyes were still visible. Chica didn't look much better, her mouth hanging open as if she had her jaw dislocated, and her arms were ripped apart. Freddy had the least damage done to him, from what Jeremy could tell. He couldn't see the old Foxy anywhere.

Jeremy gulped. They looked even creepier than the Toy Bots, for Christ's sake. At least they were locked on that room, and weren't going to move around…

" _ **The idea at first was to repair them…"**_ Phil explained. _**"Uh, they even started retrofitting them with some of the newer technology, but there were just so ugly, you know? And the smell…"**_

For someone who didn't know Phil Grayson, that sentence wouldn't have much hidden meaning, but Jeremy could tell the man was trying to conceal a whole load of sarcasm and bitterness in that sentence. He knew Phil adored the old animatronics, to the point where they treated him as a "father figure", so he couldn't be too happy about the state they were in.

" _ **Uh, so the company decided to go in a while new direction and make them super kid-friendly. Uh, those older ones shouldn't be able to walk around, but if they do, the whole Freddy head trick should work on them, so, whatever."**_

" _God, don't tell me they're gonna move around too!"_ Jeremy squeaked in his thoughts, trying not to imagine Bonnie looming over him with his face missing, red lights leering at the poor terrified night guard. He shook his head quickly to erase that image from his mind, and tried to focus on something positive – even if they did move for some reason, if they were as friendly as Phil said they were, then he had nothing to worry about, right…?

" _ **Uh… heh… I love those old characters,"**_ Phil admitted. _**"Uh, did you ever see Foxy the pirate? Oh wait, Foxy… Oh yeah, Foxy!"**_

Jeremy frowned. What was that all about? Why did he correct himself to just say "Foxy" instead of "Foxy the pirate"?

" _ **Uh, hey listen, uh, that one was always a bit twitchy, uh… I'm not sure if the Freddy head trick will work on Foxy…"**_

"Oh God…"

" _ **Uh, if for some reason he activates during the night and you see him standing at the far end of the hall, uh, just flash your light at him from time to time,"**_ the head of security suggested. _**"Those older models would always get disoriented with bright lights. It would cause a system restart, or something."**_

The night guard held the flashlight in his hands closely as if it was the most important object in the world. He knew there was a reason for Phil to mention the flashlight the previous night.

" _ **Uh, come to think of it, you might want to try that on any room where something undesirable might be. It might hold them in place for a few seconds. Uh, that glitch might be in some of the newer models too…"**_

"Uh, I wish I knew that yesterday," Jeremy muttered to himself, checking the show stage to see if any of the robots was walking around. All three of them were still there.

" _ **Uh, one more thing – don't forget the music box. I'll be honest; I never liked that Puppet thing… It's always… thinking, and it can go anywhere…"**_ Phil commented. _**"Uh, I don't think a Freddy mask will fool it, so just don't. Forget. The music box."**_

Jeremy switched to the camera view on the Prize Counter, frowning at the sight of the ominous toy box. He liked that Puppet less and less the more he heard of it…

" _ **Uh, anyway, I'm sure it won't be a problem. Uh, have a good night, and I'll talk to you tomorrow."**_

The message was over. Jeremy cleared his throat and adjusted himself on his seat. He had to focus and try to ignore all of the voices in his head that kept telling him to get out of that pizzeria while he still had the chance.

He checked Prize Counter quickly to wind up the music box, and almost jumped off his chair.

"What the…!"

Toy Foxy was staring at the camera, apparently hanging from the ceiling like some sort of mangled metallic spider. She blinked, and slowly tilted her head, her mouth wide open, showing her pointy teeth. She looked so creepy, wrong – and _creepy_ …

" _Why is she over there…?"_ the night guard wondered as he clicked the button in his remote that allowed the music box to be wound up.

There was an extra head on Toy Foxy's shoulder. Jeremy knew that, once upon a time when Toy Foxy wasn't being picked apart by kids, she had a partner – a parrot, from what he'd heard. Now, they were fused together, and anyone who didn't know of the fox's history would never be able to tell that that extra head once belonged to a robotic parrot.

Both heads were turned to the camera, and the extra head was staring with a piercing glare. Both opened their mouths the most they could, and instead of a voice, only loud static came out.

Jeremy quickly turned off the monitor so he didn't have to look at the creepy scene any longer. He shivered. God, that scene was like something straight out of a horror movie… not that he would know; he avoided horror movies like the plague.

The night guard took in a deep breath and decided to check other areas. He went to the game area, to see what Balloon Boy was up to. Just as with the previous night, the robot was sitting on the floor, staring at the balloons, still looking extremely bored.

He then checked the party rooms. Once he got to Party Room nº2, his heart did a backflip.

"GAH!"

Toy Bonnie had his face almost glued to the camera, grinning mischievously. The way he had his face so close to the camera, it was impossible to see anything else behind him.

"Sup'." He was obviously aware that he was being watched. "This time Imma catch ya, bud. Mark my words," he threatened playfully, knocking on the screen of the camera with one finger. "Hey, ya in there? You're not hiding under the table, are ya?"

" _Stupid bunny!"_ Jeremy thought angrily. _"Stop making fun of me!"_

* * *

For one peaceful hour, Jeremy actually believed that the night was going to run smoothly. Toy Bonnie was still hanging out at the party rooms, taking every opportunity he could to mock the nervous guard, be it by waving at him with a smirk or by playing him a song, changing the lyrics to "Imma get ya, you're a loser". That jerk. But at least he wasn't actually trying to get into his office. For now.

The bunny was in the middle of a very heartfelt serenade about how the new night guard was a wuss – as much as it annoyed him, it wasn't devoid of truth… - when Jeremy heard it.

"Hello."

"Hi," the night guard replied automatically.

It took him two seconds to realize what had just happened. His eyes widened, and he turned his head slowly on the direction of the left air vent. _Someone had just said "hello" to him._ It sounded like a child…

"Who's in there?" he demanded, regretting how much his voice was shaking. "Show yourself!"

" _What the – 'show yourself'?!"_ he screamed at himself. _"No! Why did I just say that…?!"_

"Well, if you insist…" sneered the child-like voice.

"NO! No, I didn't mean – Oh God…!" Without thinking, he grabbed the Freddy mask and shoved it in his head.

A loud mocking laugh echoed in the vent. Was that Balloon Boy? When did he leave the game corner?

Jeremy took in a couple of deep breaths to try and calm himself down, watching the opening to the left air vent closely. Within a couple of seconds, sounds of something banging on metal told him whatever was in the vent was leaving, since the sound was moving _away_ from him.

"Try not to freak out too much, dweeb," said Balloon Boy. "We don't want you passing out on the job, right?"

"Sweet merciful God…" Jeremy sighed, taking off the mask. "Is this 'make fun of Jeremy Fitzgerald' day or what?"

Now Balloon Boy was in on the game too! Why couldn't he just stay bored at the game corner…? This was going to be a _long_ , long night…

The night guard picked up the remote again and winded up the music box. Toy Foxy wasn't on the Prize Counter anymore, but he was not going to look around for her. He checked the show stage, and noticed it was now empty.

"Oh God…" he muttered in despair. "They're all out…!"

He pointed his flashlight at the hallway, expecting to see Toy Chica there, waving at him like the other night. Well, something _was_ there, but it wasn't Toy Chica.

It was Foxy.

The old Foxy, withered and worn-out from years of disuse. He had the arm that held his hook up, and his mouth was slightly agape. His eyes shined in the darkness, staring at him menacingly.

"MOTHER OF -"

In the hurry to pick up the flashlight, he knocked the Freddy mask over along with the remote, making a loud noise that the other robots could probably hear from wherever they were. Sure enough, another childish laugh was proof that at least Balloon Boy had heard his scream.

"Shut up, Balloon Boy! Stop making fun of me!" Jeremy snapped, flashing his light at Foxy as quickly as he could.

Foxy stumbled backwards, trying to shield his eyes from the light, until he finally turned away and disappeared in the darkness of the hall.

"Aww but it's so fun…" the child-like robot whined with fake innocence, though Jeremy couldn't tell where the robot was.

Jeremy growled quietly, but didn't say anything. He could not wait for him to get moved to day shift… _Please_ , make it happen fast…

"Oh, by the way, just thought you'd like to know," Balloon Boy's voice said. "Toy-Bonnie-is-just-about-to-get-in-your-office, oh snap!" he ranted quickly, almost not pausing between each word.

"What?!" Jeremy grabbed the mask with unnecessary force and shoved it in his head again, hurting his nose in the process.

"BB, you tattle-tale, which side are ya on?!" the blue bunny snapped from the vent.

"You're welcome!"

" _I wanna go home…"_ Jeremy sobbed inwardly.

* * *

The night guard looked at his watch, frowning. Only half an hour to go, thank God. That night was proving to be way more stressful than the first one, which he did not appreciate at all.

Toy Chica didn't attempt to pay him a visit all night, choosing instead to spend some "bounding" time with Toy Foxy. It seemed like she was following the fox around to pick up whatever parts of her mangled body fell behind whenever she tried to move. When the night guard saw that, he couldn't help but smile – the chicken was sweet. She was obviously doing her best to make the robotic fox feel better with the state she was in. If only Toy Bonnie was as sweet as her…

The bunny was 100% committed to catch the guard that night, that's for sure. He managed to get inside his office twice, but both times Jeremy put the mask on time, and successfully tricked the bunny with the whole "I'm Jerry Fazbear" act.

"Aw not again!" the bunny groaned the second time he got inside the office, only to find "Jerry Fazbear" taking the guard's place. "Why is it that every-freaking-time I get in, you're the one I find?!"

Jeremy shrugged, trying to seem calm and casual. "Dunno. B-bad timing?"

"No. This is no coincidence. I know," the bunny gasped, glaring at Jeremy. "You!" He pointed at him angrily.

The guard gulped and blinked nervously. _"Oh God, he figured it out. I freaking knew it! I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead…"_

"You warn the guard whenever I'm about to get in, don't you?!"

Jeremy opened his mouth in surprise, but with the mask, Toy Bonnie couldn't tell. "Uh, y-yeah! Yes, that's on me, definitely, totally my fault, sorry, but it just didn't seem fair, you know? I mean, there are like, five of you and only one of him…"

Toy Bonnie sniffed. "Humpf. I guess you're right. Alright, you can go ahead and help the guard out," the bunny said, heading towards the hallway. "God knows the kid needs all the help he can get."

Jeremy glared at the bunny, but thankfully he didn't see it.

Asides from the annoying blue guitarist, Foxy appeared on the hallway a second time, but was once again warded off with the flashlight rather quickly. Despite that, Jeremy was kind of worried about the fox. He didn't seem to be playful, like the others. He seemed genuinely aggressive, growling in the distance and walking towards him with a slow and intimidating step. But maybe that was just Jeremy imagining things…

Balloon Boy also paid him a visit, thought he was most un-welcome.

"Hello," he greeted teasingly, sounding like he was in the right air vent.

Jeremy put on the Freddy mask promptly, winding up the music box while he was at it.

The child-like robot stepped inside his office, brushing off dust from his shorts. He looked at the night guard with a bored expression.

"So there you are. 'Jerry Fazbear', uh?" he muttered, making air-quotation marks around the fake name Jeremy had chosen to trick the robots. "Not the creative type, are you?"

"W-what do you mean?" Jeremy stuttered, checking if there was someone on the hallway. "I didn't get to choose the name…"

Balloon Boy smirked. "Right. Look pal, you can drop the act, I know you're the night guard. I'm not interested in this 'catch the night guard' thing though, so no need to look so worried."

Jeremy sighed of relief. "Thank God…"

"Imma need that battery though," the robot said, pointing at the guard's flashlight.

Jeremy looked at Balloon Boy with surprise. "Wh… what do you want the battery for? I-I need it…"

"To ward off Foxy, sure. Well, I need it too, so hand it over," the animatronic demanded, narrowing his eyes.

"No!" The guard held the flashlight close to him as if it was his first-born child. "You can't have it!"

Balloon Boy's eyes got a very dangerous and off-putting red glint of rage, all while he was still grinning wickedly. It was uncanny. Jeremy gulped. And there he thought Balloon Boy was the least scary robot of them all!

"Pretty please?" he hissed, his voice sounding so cold and eerie that Jeremy didn't even think twice before taking out the battery of the flashlight himself and shoving it on the robot's hand.

The red light and wicked grin disappeared instantly, leaving Balloon Boy to go back to his child-like smile. "There, was that so hard? I knew you were a nice guy." He turned around to go back into the right air vent.

Jeremy looked at his flashlight, which was now obviously useless without a battery. "Crap. What do I do now…?"

He looked at his watch, and felt instant relief. Only two minutes left for the end of his shift. Nothing much could happen in those two minutes, right?

Without even bothering to sit, he checked the monitors for what he assumed would be the last time for the night. Toy Freddy had returned to the stage, and looked like he was asleep. Toy Foxy was at the game corner, hanging from the ceiling as usual. Toy Chica was near the bathrooms, missing her beak again. Was she trying to look scary…? He couldn't find Balloon Boy anywhere, so he assumed that the robot was avoiding the cameras somehow. Damn that little prick, why did he want the battery for anyway?

Once he checked on the Prize Counter to wind up the music box, he saw something he hadn't seen before. Right next to the toy box where he figured the Puppet was hiding, was a shiny endoskeleton with no suit. It was looking at the toy box, as if it was watching over it.

Jeremy frowned. What was that thing? Why was it there? Just as his watch announced it was _finally_ 6 AM, the endoskeleton looked at the camera. It blinked in what looked like a benevolent manner and smiled.

" **Bye, Mr. Fitzgerald."**

It turned away and left, leaving Jeremy feeling very confused. How did that endoskeleton know his name…?


	3. Chapter 3 - Third Night

**Disclaimer: I do not own "Five Nights at Freddy's" or its characters.**

* * *

Jeremy was getting more and more convinced that if he did have a guardian angel like everyone else supposedly had, than that guy was on vacation at the moment.

His day hadn't gone that well, and he was certain that the night would be no different – not with the job he had, anyway.

His mother and sister, using the usual argument of him being always locked up at home and having to go out and meet new people to "broaden his horizons", ended up pretty much dragging him out the house to hang out with his neighbor Clark and his friends. Clark was a nice guy, Jeremy knew him since they were kids, but he and his friends were the popular kind, always out on parties and surrounded by people. He didn't feel comfortable, at all. But, he went anyway, _smiling and nodding_ , just as always. The conversations they had included several inside jokes Jeremy obviously didn't understand and plan discussions to hang out at night which he naturally had to refuse due to his job… and because he didn't really want to go. Unfortunately, once he gave the "I work at night" excuse to explain why he couldn't go with them "hit the club" or whatever, the conversation was then entirely focused on Freddy Fazbear's.

There was nothing _but_ rumors about the place, and sadly Jeremy had heard them all before. He didn't feel like hearing all of that again. Sadly, Clark's friends were very eager to know if it was true that the animatronics walked around at night and attacked the guards and kept questioning him about it – fortunately Jeremy could tell them, in all honesty, that they did move around but from what he could tell they meant no harm. Yet. They almost seemed disappointed. But the worst was yet to come.

"I heard," one of the guys said mysteriously. "That, some years ago, I'm not sure when, _some guy_ took kids to the backroom and killed them. Stuffed them in the suits and let them there to bleed to death."

Some of the guys grimaced in disgust while others laughed, though Jeremy couldn't find anything funny in that story. That was yet another story he had heard before. He knew that it was in fact true – Phil Grayson worked at the pizzeria where it happened. He told him that there were five children, one of which the girl whose birthday was being celebrated when they disappeared. The bodies were never found, and so the whole "they were stuffed inside the suits" part of the story seemed to be mostly speculation and made-up.

"They say that the guy who did it is still around," another guy said, munching on his burger casually. "Someone else was arrested in his place. I heard that five other kids went missing; maybe he did it."

The boys shared looks of surprise and almost enthusiasm, though Jeremy was mortified. He didn't know anything about kids going missing recently! But they couldn't have been killed at the pizzeria, like the ones from years ago were, right…?

The boy closest to Jeremy seemed to be the only one besides him who didn't find the conversation to be all that interesting. "Can we not talk about that right now?" he requested, sounding somewhat upset.

Clark looked apologetic. "Ah, damn Roy, I'm sorry, I forgot…"

"Why, what happened…?" Jeremy asked before he could control himself.

Roy didn't answer, deciding to act like Jeremy didn't exist instead and turning away from him.

Clark leaned towards the young guard. "One of those kids, you know, the ones that just went missing," he whispered, so Roy wouldn't hear him. "That was his cousin, Miriam. She's nine years old."

And so, Jeremy's feeling of depression in regards to how he was spending his afternoon increased by about 55%.

Now he was back at the security office of the Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, remembering the most depressing afternoon he had in his whole life, and praying that the night wouldn't contribute for him feeling any worse.

" _This was supposed to be a place for kids…"_ he thought, looking around at the drawings exposed on the walls of his office. _"Yet, all of this is happening…"_

He could understand why Phil always got so defensive whenever someone mentioned the rumors regarding the pizzeria in his presence. He knew the man loved that place, having worked there before it all started falling apart, before the children died… Being reminded of that event couldn't be easy for him.

And speaking of Phil…

" _ **Uh, hello, hello!"**_

Jeremy grabbed the control remote to wind up the music box while he listened to Phil's message of the day.

" _ **See, I told you you wouldn't have any problems!"**_ Phil couldn't see it, naturally, but at hearing those words Jeremy couldn't help but glare at the phone. _**"Did uh… Foxy ever appear in the hallway?"**_

" _He sure did,"_ Jeremy thought. _"Twice!"_

Considering the events of the previous night, he had decided that he needed to use his flashlight to a minimum in order to have enough power to fend off Foxy in case he showed up in the hall. Amongst the animatronics, he didn't look like he was joking around, so he thought it was best to just be cautious and keep him as far away as he could.

Also, since Balloon Boy had – for some reason – took the battery of his flashlight, he decided he should just bring extra batteries in case it happened again. Maybe that was the child-like robot's idea of a game; while the others were playing catch, Balloon Boy took the batteries… Maybe. He really had no idea what the robot wanted them for…

" _ **Probably not; I was just curious. Like I said, he was always my favorite,"**_ Phil admitted. Jeremy already knew that. He had heard Phil tell stories about Foxy many times. It seemed like they had fun "playing pirate" back at the first pizzeria, whenever they had a break. _**"They tried to remake Foxy, you know? Uh, they thought the first one was too scary, so they redesigned him to be more kid-friendly and put him in Kid's Cove. Uh, to keep the toddlers entertained, you know… But kids these days just can't keep their hands to themselves…"**_

Yeah, he knew. That was how Toy Foxy came to be. Out of curiosity, he checked on Kid's Cove. Toy Foxy was still there, lying on the ground. She was reaching for one of her eyes, which had fallen off apparently. Jeremy watched her sadly. It was kind of heartbreaking to see her all mangled like that.

" _ **The staff literally had to pu Foxy back together at the end of every shift. So eventually they just stopped trying and left him as some kind of 'take apart and put back together' attraction. Now he's just a mess of parts… I think the employees refer to him as just 'The Mangle'. Uh…"**_

Jeremy frowned. "The Mangle", uh? Fitting, yet somewhat mean. They could have just placed a warning for parents to not let their kids mess with the animatronics to the point of tearing them apart, really. But, oh well, it wasn't his call.

The message went on. _**"Oh, hey, before I go, uh, I wanted to ease your mind about any rumors you might have heard lately. You know how these local stories come and go and seldom mean anything. I can personally assure you, that whatever is going on out there, and however tragic it may be, has nothing to do with our establishment. It's just all rumor and speculation… People trying to make a buck, you know…"**_

The guard looked quizzically at the phone. So Phil had heard the same rumors he just heard tha afternoon about the missing kids…

" _ **Uh, our guard during the day has reported nothing unusual, and he's on watch from opening till close. Okay, well anyway, hang in there and I'll talk to you tomorrow."**_

Jeremy sighed and shifted on his seat. Now that the message was over, he had to focus on the robots. Mangle – uh, Toy Foxy – was still at Kid's Cove, looking sadly at the drawings made by children.

He checked Prize Corner again to wind up the music box and then checked the show stage.

The Toy Bots were still there, even Toy Bonnie, which was a surprise. By that hour, the bunny was usually up and about to bother the guard, but he wasn't in the mood apparently. In fact, all three of the Toy Bots had this heavy expression, as if they were thinking about something that bothered them greatly. He couldn't imagine what thought.

He shook his head abruptly, trying to shake off that unnerving feeling, and leaned on the chair, lighting up the hall with a apprehensive stare.

No Foxy in sight.

Uh. No one was bothering him yet. Hm. Maybe that night wouldn't go so bad after all.

* * *

 **2 AM**

" _Oh God, oh God, oh God, this is bad… This is really bad…"_

It was amazing how much the ambient had changed in two hours. Well, "amazing" wasn't the right word – "awful" would be better. Jeremy was pretty sure now that he had the worst job in the world. No – _universe_.

Why couldn't the night just go smoothly, without robots trying to break in? NO! That would be too easy… No, no, he had to fight for his life for six hours straight.

Early on in the night, everything was peaceful. Toy Foxy was in Kid's Cove, the music box was under control, Balloon Boy was lazily drawings something in his sign, and the Toy Bots were on stage… Jeremy was relaxed, tapping the remote control on the desk, casually checking the monitors. A true picture of peace and quietude.

That is, until the old, withered robots decided to break in and stomp all over that picture, shredding it to pieces and setting it on fire for good measure.

He had a slight suspicion that the old animatronics wouldn't be lying motionless on the spare parts room forever – Phil had at least _implied_ that there was a chance of them moving. What he didn't expect, however, was for them to be even worse than the Toy Bots. Yes, because the Toy Bots weren't even out yet. Toy Bonnie, Toy Freddy and Toy Chica were still on the show stage, discussing something in whispers. Jeremy couldn't hear what they were talking about, but it seemed serious. He had other concerns in mind that were way more urgent than the Toy Bots' secret "reunions" though. Upon checking the spare parts room just to spend time, he noticed that both the old Bonnie and Chica were out. For a few seconds, he tried to reassure himself by thinking that, according to Phil, they were both rather pleasant and friendly, and so he wouldn't have any problems with them.

He was tragically wrong.

In order to save the flashlight's battery, he decided it would be better if he only used it to ward off Foxy and check the vents to see if anyone had gotten in. After all, he didn't need to check the cameras, asides from the vents and the Prize Corner to wind up the music box. So, while he was trying out his new strategy and checked the air vents, he realized he was being flanked.

The old Bonnie was on the left air vent, leering at the camera with his blinking red LED lights, and obviously attempting to get in. Same went for the old Chica, who was taking over the right air vent, her jaw broken as her mouth was wide open, as if she was preparing herself to take a bit on the guard's head.

Jeremy switched between both air vent cameras, eyes wide in horror. That didn't look good. They didn't look like they were just playing a prank on him. In fact, they were devoid of expression, as if they weren't even aware of what they were doing.

"Hello."

"AH NO!" He shrieked, dropping the remote on the desk and shoving the mask on his head, completely forgetting that, at least with Balloon Boy, that didn't really matter.

The childish robot was nowhere to be seen though, so Jeremy quickly deduced that he wasn't the recipient of Balloon Boy's greeting. Who could he be talking too then? No matter how hard he looked for the short animatronic, he couldn't find him anywhere. He seemed to be the only one who could easily avoid being spotted by the cameras.

Sighing in resignation to his lack of luck, he looked up from the monitors. His heart dropped to the floor and he felt the air running out of his lungs in a panic.

The old Bonnie was inside his office, looking down at him. Jeremy spazzed out, looking around for his mask, until he realized he was still wearing it from when he heard Balloon Boy talk. He stared at the tall robot, not even daring to breathe.

"Um… U-uhh, hi Bonnie… H-how are you?" he stuttered.

Bonnie didn't answer. For a second, he moved his hand as if he was going to remove the guard's mask. But then, he simply turned away to disappear in the shadows of the main hall.

" _Alright, don't panic… It's alright,"_ Jeremy thought to himself. _"You're safe, you're alright… You're safe, you're alright…"_

Carefully taking off the mask, he lighted up the hall with the flashlight, hoping to see it empty.

No such luck. Foxy was there, glaring at him with his jaw open.

"… I hate my job."

* * *

 **4 AM**

Jeremy slowly peeked over the monitor.

"He can't be there still…" he muttered to himself, gulping. _"Just in case…"_

Click. The hall was illuminated by the flashlight. Foxy was not there, and the hall was empty.

Thank God, he was gone at last. Jeremy was tired of seeing the menacing fox standing there for half an hour, glaring at him with his hook in the air. Certainly the fox had better things to do than bother him all night?

He winded up the music box and then checked the air vents. The vents had been very crowded for the past two hours. By the same characters, though. It was always either Bonnie or Chica that were trying to get in, though they always ended up backtracking and going back into whatever room they usually stayed in. Once, Chica decided to actually get in, but Jeremy was quick enough to put the mask on. The chicken observed him for a while, tilting her head in slow and absurdly creepy manner, like a haunted doll, before turning away to leave.

Jeremy had no idea what they were up to. Unlike the Toy Bots, there weren't playing some game. So what did they want?

Banging on metal alerted the night guard to the fact that someone was back in the vents.

" _C'mon I just checked them…"_

Balloon Boy was taking over the left air vent. Of course. It would be too good if the robot didn't try to get into the office as well, wouldn't it? He was already surprised that the Toy Bots hadn't moved yet, anyway.

"You too?" he groaned, desperately. "I'll just leave the battery at the entrance, how about that?" He stood up, placed the spare battery he had brought at the entrance of the left air vent and sat back down. "There! Take it and go away, please…"

While he waited for the robot to get in and take the battery to do God-knows-what with it, he checked the right air vent. There was Chica again…

"… You're safe, you're alright," Jeremy muttered nervously. Repeating that to himself seemed to manage to calm him down. That night was being _way_ too nerve-wrecking…

* * *

 **5 AM**

Jeremy was now seeing something he did not expect to see in the vents.

Balloon Boy had given up on entering the office, and as such the spare battery the night guard had left to appease the robot was still lying on the ground. Now, Jeremy had just managed to get rid of both Bonnie and Foxy – who were both hanging out at the main hall for some reason – when he heard noises in the vents and assumed that the balloon enthusiast was giving it another ago. But it wasn't Balloon Boy.

It was an endoskeleton. The endoskeleton he had seen the previous night at the Prize Counter, to be precise.

"What the…"

Jeremy squinted to take a good look at it. The endoskeleton blinked, noticing the camera, and smiled.

" **Don't be scared,"** it said. **"I'm here for you."**

Now the guard was even more confused than before, though he couldn't help a sense of relief at hearing that endoskeleton's voice. It sounded like a little girl, but robotic. What was it doing? Why was it there? Phil hadn't said anything about the endoskeletons moving out of their suits…

It wouldn't be until half a hour later that Balloon Boy would pay him a visit that would get him even more worried and confused, if that was even possible.

During all that time, the endoskeleton did not exit the vents or tried to get inside Jeremy's office. It just sat laid there. Occasionally, it would smile warmly at the camera, as if to comfort the guard, and there were times when sounds of a scuffle could be heard, as if an animatronic was trying to take the endoskeleton out of the vent and failed.

From that, Jeremy assumed that, whatever that endoskeleton was, it was trying to help him. It was blocking the vent so that no other robot could get in. Unfortunately it could only block one vent, and the vent that was left unguarded was the one both the old Bonnie and Balloon Boy used.

"Hi," was the usual greeting that the child-like robot made.

Jeremy shoved the mask down his head and looked at the vent just in time to see Balloon Boy enter his office. He was frowning, and once he spotted the spare battery on the ground, he looked at the guard with a piercing stare.

"What's this for?" he asked roughly.

"You tell me," Jeremy retorted, trying to conceal his increasing stress. "You took my battery yesterday, so I thought I might as well bring you a spare one…"

"So it _is_ you," Balloon Boy said unexpectedly. "You're the night guard from yesterday."

Jeremy stared at the robot. What did _that_ mean? "O-of course I'm the night guard! Who else would I be?"

Balloon Boy didn't answer. He picked up the spare battery, never once looking away from the nervous guard. "I thought so. You sound the same," he commented. "But… you don't look the same…"

"I thought you said the mask didn't trick you like it did with the others," the guard reminded.

"It's not the mask. Something's different…" Balloon Boy's frown deepened. "Something's off… I better tell the others…"

And without another word, he slipped back into the vent, leaving the guard sitting there with a dumbfounded expression, invisible to anyone else considering he was still wearing the Freddy mask.

"Be careful with the old robots, dweeb," Balloon Boy's voice warned from the vent. "They're _really_ out to get you. If they catch you…"

The robot didn't finish the warning, but he didn't have to. Jeremy could imagine a series of horrible demises that would befall him in case he was captured by the withered robots. And each was worse than the latter…

" _You're safe, you're alright…"_ he ranted in his thoughts, wiping the sweat off his forehead after removing the mask. _"You're safe, you're alright…"_

" **Mr. Fitzgerald?"** called a familiar female voice from the vent. **"I have to leave, but my friend will watch over you, okay?"**

Jeremy looked at the vent for a few seconds. That sounded like the endoskeleton. What friend was it talking about though? "Uh… U-uhh, okay? Um, t-thanks! I guess…"

He heard the endoskeleton get out of the vents, and took a couple of deep breaths before winding up the music box.

There was someone watching over him, though he had no idea who, if the endoskeleton was to be believed. Perhaps _another_ endoskeleton? At least he had someone helping him out… Balloon Boy didn't seem to be out to get him much either… He just wanted the batteries, for whatever reason. And he said something was off… Something with the Toy Bots, maybe? There had to be a reason as to why they didn't get off stage that night. And something about Jeremy looking different? He couldn't imagine what.

That night, when Jeremy Fitzgerald was heading back home, he was certain that that night had been the worst night ever in his life.

But he had no idea that it was only going to get worse from there.

Just like he had no idea that some _thing_ was following him.

Something that hid in the shadows, and giggled as he tripped on the sidewalk, in the hurry to get into his car and drive away from the pizzeria. Something that had been watching him all night, without him ever noticing her… right from under the guard's desk.


	4. Chapter 4 - Fourth Night

**Disclaimer: I do not own "Five Nights at Freddy's" or its characters.**

* * *

"Lia, I told you, I'm fine," Jeremy assured on the phone. "Yes, I… No, I… Yes, but…" He groaned. "LIA, I have to go, I'm already late."

The night guard rushed to his office as he hung up the phone and put on his hat, not wanting to stay on the dark halls of the pizzeria any longer than necessary. He didn't even dare to look around him – the drawings made by children looked unbelievably creepy at night.

He had to hurry though. He only had one minute left until the beginning of his shift, and he didn't want to miss Phil's message of the day. He knew that the man had programmed his recordings to start at midnight, sharp. Jeremy couldn't believe that he was only getting to work at that hour! As much as he preferred to stay the least amount of time possible in that pizzeria at night, he didn't like the idea of not doing his job properly. But some things were just out of his hands…

Like him having to take his sister's cat to the vet. Neither Jeremy nor Lia had no idea how the cat had gotten injured. One minute, it's just lying on the grass lazily, enjoying the sun, and the next it's screeching, with deep scratches all over its back and hind paws. Lia kept insisting that she did not see anything nearby that could have done that, which only got Jeremy worried, confused and slightly scared, all in one second. What could have done that to the cat without being seen?

Then, while he was returning from the vet after leaving the cat there for observation, he almost crashed into another car. Through some miracle, he managed to avoid the vehicle and instead swerved off the road. His sister flew into a panic, and even after seeing him and making sure that he had nothing worse than a cut on his forehead she was still worried.

After recovering from the initial scare – which took a good couple of hours to accomplish… - Jeremy was concerned over something other than his physical health. He just couldn't shake off the feeling of something taking over the steering wheel and dodging the car _for him_. As if something intervened and saved him from getting into an accident.

But that was stupid. It was just a happy coincidence; he must have moved the steering wheel out of instinct. Probably. He had other things to worry about at the moment.

Jeremy slumped into his chair and sighed of relief, just as his watch announced the beginning of his shift. His relief was short-lived, however, as he quickly remembered everything that had happened the night before. His sigh of relief turned into a whimper as he wondered if the withered robots would be even more aggressive that night. Unfortunately, there was a very high possibility…

The phone started ringing, and Jeremy immediately picked up the remote to check the cameras.

" _ **Hello, hello? Uh, hey there, night four! I told you you'd get the hang of it! Okay, so uh, just to update you, uh, there's been somewhat of an, uh, investigation going on, uh…"**_

Jeremy took a quick glance at the phone while he wound up the music box. That investigation could only have something to do with the five missing kids he had heard about. Finally they were doing something about it.

" _ **We might have to close for a few days, I don't know… Uh, I want to emphasize thought that it's really just a precaution. Uh, Fazbear Entertainment denies any wrongdoing."**_

' _Sure it does,'_ Jeremy grunted in his thoughts. _'I bet Mr. Jack Anderson doesn't appreciate all this bad publicity…'_

From what he'd heard from Phil Grayson, the owner of Fazbear Entertainment, Jack Anderson, was not the most approachable person in the universe. He knew, inclusively, that the man was not known for his moral sense, and that he showed very little concern for his staff, caring more about the reputation of the company and the money they made.

As for Phil himself, it was no secret for anyone who knew him that he was very loyal and devoted to the company. He loved the robots and the pizzeria to death. Jeremy was certain that if anything bad happened that could threaten to destroy the pizzeria's reputation, Phil wouldn't believe it to be true until he had irrefutable evidence.

Phil carried on with his message. _**"These things happen sometimes. Um… It'll all get sorted out in a few days, just keep an eye on things and I'll keep you posted. Uh, just as a side note though, try to avoid eye contact with any of the animatronics tonight if you can."**_

Jeremy frowned, as he checked the cameras for any "undesirable" movement. Why did he have to avoid eye contact…?

" _ **Uh, someone may have tampered with their facial recognition systems – we're not sure… But the characters have been acting very unusual, almost aggressive towards the staff. They interact with the kids just fine, but when they encounter an adult, they just… stare,"**_ the message informed.

"Oh that's fantastic…" Jeremy muttered desperately.

Just what he needed – the robots were even worse than before now! They were just playing around at first, but now they were really out to get him from the sound of it. And not just him, they were after the rest of the staff too! Could that have to do with what Balloon Boy had told him the night before?

" _You don't look the same,"_ he had said. And Phil mentioned someone might have tampered with the robots' facial recognition system. Was that why he didn't look the same to them?

" _ **Uh, anyways, hang tight. It'll all pass. Good night."**_

Jeremy took in a deep breath and stared intently at the monitors. He knew what he could expect now. The withered animatronics were most certainly going to keep bothering him, just like the previous night, and now he had a feeling that the Toy Bots were not going to stay on stage all night anymore.

He checked Kid's Cove to see if Mangle was doing any better, but she was not there. He found her on the Prize Counter, hanging on the ceiling as usual, her jaw wide open as she stared the toy box where the Puppet usually stayed in.

' _Yeah that's still creepy…'_

The endoskeleton wasn't there yet. Jeremy didn't know where the endoskeleton had come from, in reality. Maybe from the spare parts room? There wasn't that much light in that room, so there was a chance that the helpful endoskeleton was hiding in the darkness somewhere. He could only hope that he – or she, considering the girly voice it had – would come out to help him soon.

The Toy Bots were still on stage, but they were all staring at the camera with a glare. That didn't help Jeremy feel any less nervous. Why were they looking at the camera like that? Could they really not recognize him?

There was someone out of the Toy Bots that did though. Jeremy switched to the camera on Game Corner, and found Balloon Boy still there. The short robot looked at the camera.

Jeremy gulped. Even though he knew the child-like animatronic was only after the batteries, there was something about him that felt… off. He wasn't fooled by the mask trick like the others, and he knew that something was wrong with his facial recognition system, if what he had told Jeremy the night before was any indication. He wasn't out to get Jeremy, but he wasn't exactly on his side either.

Deciding he had enough with looking at crazy robots who had nothing better to do than make him dread the nights he spent there, he turned off the monitors and checked the hallway.

Foxy was already there, glaring at him.

'… _I really hate my job…'_

* * *

 **1 AM**

Jeremy couldn't believe what his eyes were seeing.

One hour had gone by, and the pirate fox was _still_ in the hallway.

"Go away!" the guard hissed, flashing the light in the robot's face in a spastic manner.

The fox had indeed vanished into the darkness of the open hall, but always returned fairly quickly, usually within seconds. This was about his seventh charge already.

"God, why is this happening to me…?" Jeremy whined. "I can't wait to be moved to day shift…"

An eerie laugh snapped him out of his misery, making the hairs in the back of his neck stand on end. He recognized the voice as belonging to Balloon Boy. That meant he was no longer at Game Corner.

Oh well, he'd worry about him later. Why was he laughing though…?

' _That jerk keeps making fun of me… Even after warning me yesterday he's still a prick…! I wonder if he's like that with the kids…'_

After winding up the music box again – which he could swear was taking less and less time to unwind – he checked the hallway. Sure enough, Foxy was still there, slowly narrowing his eyes at the sight of the guard.

"… I hate you. I hate you so much."

A low growl that came from the hallway was probably an indication that the feeling was mutual.

* * *

 **2 AM**

The night guard stared in horror at the camera of the right air vent. Now he was seriously considering the option of just dropping everything and leaving.

He wouldn't be surprised if he saw the old Chica staring at him on the right air vent. He wouldn't be surprised if he saw Toy Bonnie there either. He would actually be grateful if he saw the endoskeleton there. But no. Because things can't be easy for Jeremy Fitzgerald, no sir.

Now, he was staring at _Mangle_. For some reason, she decided to get into the vents and pay him a visit too. And if that wasn't enough, he was pretty sure Balloon Boy was in the left air vent.

"Mangle, what are you doing there…?" Jeremy wondered.

Maybe if he talked to her…

"Hum, hey, Mang – I mean, Toy Foxy?" he called, turning his head towards the vent. "Uh… D-do you need some…"

" _ **WHO bzzzzt a-are bzzzzt zzz yOu?"**_ was the answer he got from the mangled white fox.

Jeremy blinked in confusion. "W-who am I? I'm the night guard. You remember, right? J-Jeremy?"

He saw the fox's eyes narrow dangerously, just like the old Foxy. _**"You bzzzzt a-bzzzzt are not zzzzt Jer-JerEmy,"**_ she growled. _**"WHAT bzzzzt dId yOu bzzzzt do to HIM?"**_

"Whoa, wait! I am Jere – oh God…" The guard interrupted himself, realizing it was useless.

That's why they were after him now – they didn't recognize him anymore because of their facial recognition system being tampered with. They didn't see him as the night guard now; they saw him as a stranger, a possible threat.

"Sup, dweeb."

"GAAH!"

Jeremy almost fell off the chair in the hurry to move away from the left air vent. He stared at Balloon Boy with his eyes wide, holding the remote control as if it was a shield that could defend him against robot attacks.

Balloon Boy was not impressed. "Keep spazzing out like that and you'll end up dead, moron," he spat. "When was the last time you checked the hall?"

Jeremy picked up the flashlight quickly and illuminated the dark hallway. Foxy was not camping there as usual, but someone was – the old Freddy, hunched over as if he was getting ready to charge at Jeremy.

The young guard whimpered quietly, not daring to look away from the old bear, whose glowing eyes, devoid of emotion, were seriously one of the creepiest things he had ever seen in his life. The list mostly included things he had seen since working at the pizzeria…

"Oh put your big-boy-pants on and get back to work, dweeb," said Balloon Boy, merciless, looking at Jeremy with a stern look. "I told you these guys aren't messing around."

"Well, neither are the Toy Bots, 'cause Mangle is in the vents too and she doesn't recognize me," the guard snapped, sitting back on his chair while flashing the light on Freddy's eyes.

Balloon Boy looked at the old withered bear, frowning. "The others don't either," he said. "I told them that you _are_ the night guard but they don't believe me. Someone…"

"Messed with their facial recognition system, I know," Jeremy completed, winding up the music box while still keeping an eye on Freddy, who was beginning to turn and walk away. "Didn't yours get messed with too?"

"Yeah, but I'm smart enough to recognize voices too," the robot declared, not sounding like he was bragging. "Anyway, you know what I'm here for. Hand that battery over."

Jeremy looked at Balloon Boy in annoyance. "What do you want these for anyway?" he asked, shoving a spare battery he had brought from home in the small robot's hands. "Weren't the two you already got from me enough?"

"No," the robot replied curtly. "If they were enough, I wouldn't be here asking for more, now would I?"

"So what do you want them for?" Jeremy insisted, glancing at the right air vent as he heard the distinct sounds of something moving away from the office.

Balloon Boy stared at Jeremy with his typical bored look. "I collect them. I'm entitled to have a hobby."

Jeremy's glare deepened. " _Really?_ "

"Yeah, _really_. Like you and everyone else thinks, I'm just a prick like that." The robot might have done a good job at concealing it underneath a smug tone of voice, but Jeremy could have sworn he noted a hint of resentment in the small robot's words.

Balloon Boy left with his battery, leaving Jeremy alone with his thoughts. He had to admit, he didn't know all that much of Balloon Boy. Other than that he handed out balloons and never gave out hugs no matter how much he was asked by the children (something Phil had mentioned vaguely) there wasn't that much info in Jeremy's memory. He remembered Phil had mentioned something about the robot's attitude changing in time, but he hadn't said why… Maybe he should ask him that when he had the chance. Something told him there was more to Balloon Boy's motifs than meets the eye…

* * *

 **5 AM**

It seemed apparent that if there was one thing that both versions of Foxy shared was that they were incredibly persistent.

It had been three hours since Mangle had first tried to get into the office, and since then, she had tried again – two more times, to be exact.

In fact, Jeremy was now looking at the camera of the right air vent, and sure enough, there she was. Still glaring fiercely at the camera, obviously thinking that whoever was in the office was some kind of impostor that had done something to the night guard and taken his place.

While on one hand it was sweet to think that the Toy Bots were trying to help the night guard by scaring away the intruder, on the other hand it wasn't so good on Jeremy, considering that meant they would be constantly trying to bother him.

The Toy Bots mostly stuck to the other rooms, as far as Jeremy could tell – he didn't see them in the hall, or in the vents, but they weren't in the show stage. He didn't bother to look for them in the other cameras though. He had enough creepiness around him.

Foxy showed up in the hallway a couple of more times, unsurprisingly, but now it seemed like he had decided to give up for the night.

There were only fifteen minutes left to the end of his shift now, and Jeremy couldn't help but feel an immense sense of relief. Surely nothing too bad could happen in just fifteen minutes, right?

Wrong.

One after the other, the old Bonnie, Chica and Freddy managed to get inside his office separately. He barely had enough time to breathe in-between. Every time he took off the mask to look at the monitors, he would look up to see that there was another robot staring at him.

He was so desperate to get rid of them, that he had no time to worry about anything else. Including the music box.

It wasn't until the old Freddy Fazbear left that Jeremy noticed it. There was a warning sign on the corner of the monitor, blinking rapidly as if there was something urgent he had to take care of. He had never seen it before.

"What the hell is this…?"

From a distance, he heard a _click_ and a faint music playing. He recognized that music… "Pop Goes the Weasel" right? Where was that coming from?

"The music box!" he gasped, horrified.

It was too late. No matter how much he clicked on the button to wind up the music box, the "Pop Goes the Weasel" music was still playing, and it was giving Jeremy all kinds of shivers.

Then, to make things worse, he saw the lid of the toy box on the Prize Counter open.

"Oh God…"

From inside the box something slender and dark emerged. A tall robot, monochromatic, grinning eerily at the camera.

" **Oh my, did you forget my music?"** it sneered.

Jeremy felt like he was paralyzed in fear. Was that the Puppet? It was absolutely horrifying – _how could they leave kids near that thing?_

Slowly, the robot slithered off the music box, obviously with full intentions to make its way towards the office. What could Jeremy do about that? Phil said that the mask wouldn't fool it, and the light wouldn't do much either, probably.

He was doomed. It was the end. This time, there was no escape. His mouth was dry, he felt like his eyes were going to shot out of their eye-sockets.

" _ **Sounds like you're in trouble, Jeremy."**_

The guard jumped off his chair as if he had been electrocuted, shrieking in fear and pointing the light of his flashlight at his desk. _Something was underneath it_. And it was _talking_ to him.

An eerie laugh, much alike Balloon Boy's, but more high-pitched, like a girl's, was heard from underneath the desk.

" _ **Don't you worry, Jeremy. I'm here to help,"**_ the unknown presence declared with a silky voice.

To Jeremy's growing horror, something appeared from underneath the desk. A small child, with clothes similar to Balloon Boy's. A girl, with her hair tied in pigtails and a mischievous grin. Her magenta eyes flashed in his direction.

"W-who the hell… Who are you? H-how did you get in here?" Jeremy stammered, taking several steps back.

The child laughed again. _**"Now, don't make that face. I already told you – I'm here to help."**_ She tilted her head, still with the same mischievous grin. _**"You want me to get rid of the Puppet for you?"**_

Jeremy had no idea what was going on at that point, and he had no idea of who that girl was. How come he hadn't noticed her just sitting underneath his desk? How long had she been there?

" _ **I was hiding from you, silly, that's why you didn't notice,"**_ she said suddenly, as if she had read his thoughts. _**"And I've been there all night. I'm watching over you under a friend's request, that's all."**_

Something in the guard's mind clicked. _"Under her friend's request"_? Didn't the endoskeleton say that she had to leave, but that _her friend_ would watch over him?

"You… You mean the endoskeleton?" Jeremy asked, trying to calm down.

" _ **Her name is Rika,"**_ the little girl corrected. _**"Sweet girl. Now, do you want me to get rid of the Puppet or not? Trust me, I won't mind, God knows I hate that thing."**_

What did he have to lose, really? If that girl was there to help – whoever or whatever she was – than he would appreciate it. He needed all the help he could get, especially since he could hear the Puppet approaching his office, snickering evilly.

"Alright, alright, just do what you have to!" he finally said.

The little girl's grinned was almost predatory now. _**"Excellent decision~"**_

She vanished in thin air, as if she was never there at all.

For a second, Jeremy thought that she had simply slipped into one of the vents, but that was not possible. She just vanished, as if she was made of smoke… _What was she?_ Could she be another robot, a female version of Balloon Boy of sorts that was used for parts like the old withered robots?

He looked everywhere for a sign of where she could be hiding, until he looked at the hallway and screamed for dear life. The Puppet was there, staring at him.

" **We meet again,"** it said, its eyes narrowing.

Jeremy fell on the chair. It was over. He was done. That thing was going to catch him, and… he didn't know what it would do to him, but for sure it wouldn't be good.

The Puppet moved its claw-like fingers in his direction, but suddenly stopped. Its eyes widened a bit, and it looked over its shoulder. Something was preventing it from getting any closer to Jeremy, and the Puppet did not seem pleased to see who it was.

It was the girl that had just disappeared from Jeremy's office. She was grabbing the Puppet's feet.

" _ **I'm so very sorry, Mr. Puppet,"**_ she said, in a fake apologetic manner that didn't match her wicked grin. _**"But it seems we have conflicting interests. You want the night guard to die, and well… I don't."**_

She pulled the Puppet away from the entrance of the office, throwing it back into the darkness with little effort.

Meanwhile, Jeremy could only sit on his chair, his jaw almost on the floor as he watched the scene unfold in front of him. What the hell was going on?!

" _ **There, Jeremy, all taken care of,"**_ the girl said, dusting her hands in fake bravado. _**"Your shift is over. Congrats."**_

Right on cue, the clock announced the arrival of 6 AM. Jeremy almost felt like singing and jumping in joy. He made it! He didn't get himself killed! It didn't even matter what that girl was – he would be forever grateful.

He looked at the girl who stood on the hallway, and smiled weakly. "Thanks. I didn't even know there was another Balloon Boy-like robot around here…"

She giggled. _**"That's because there's not. I'm just a ghost,"**_ she declared casually, snickering at Jeremy's shock. _**"You can call me Gift Girl."**_


	5. Chapter 5 - Fifth Night

**Disclaimer: I do not own "Five Nights at Freddy's" or its characters.**

* * *

Jeremy's life had taken a very sudden and unexpected turn.

Up until the previous day, never had he considered the possibility of ghosts and supernatural-anything being nothing more than horror stories told to scare kids – and him. Then, _that_ happened. He was rescued from a creepy robot by one of the very things he preferred to believe were not real: ghosts.

Sadly, there was no other explanation. How else would Gift Girl, as she called herself, be able to simply disappear and reappear as she pleased, and float in the air like she wasn't solid? It still amazed him how well he took such big news. Maybe his brain had been too shocked to react accordingly, and so he simply stared at the ghostly girl with his mouth agape, nodding slightly as she assured him that she would be there to help him the next day. Question was: did he _want_ her to show up? Sure, she had been helpful on warding off the Puppet, but he would have a ghost standing next to him for four hours…

Naturally, he did not tell anything about any of this to his family, or to Phil. As if anyone would believe him! He barely believed it himself… He couldn't conceal the fact that he looked more stressed out from work than usual, of course, but he was able to pin it down on still recovering from the near-accident he had on the road.

The guard looked up at the pizzeria, where he'd be spending six more hours that night. He gulped. _Why did he keep coming back?_ There were robots trying to get to him, ghosts hanging around, all things that would usually be enough for him to bail and run back home. But it was his job to watch over the pizzeria… As much as it pained him, he didn't want to tell Phil that he wanted to quit. He didn't want to disappoint him, or his family.

So, like a condemned man walking towards his doom, Jeremy started his lonely walk towards the office where he'd be freaking out at the robots antics for yet another shift. Mother of mercy…

Slumping on his chair, he looked at the dark hall in front of him and scratched his head nervously. Why couldn't they just get doors? His life would be so much easier… All he'd have to do would be to keep the doors closed all night. He wouldn't need that suffocating mask, he wouldn't need to wind up the music box, he wouldn't need to panic every other minute…

"Hi Jeremy!"

The night guard yelped and clenched the remote control near his chest, jumping on his chair as he looked at the desk. He recognized the voice but it didn't prevent him from being startled. "Don't do that!"

The voice giggled. As he expected, a girl with clothes similar to Balloon Boy's came out from underneath his desk and grinned. "Are you always so jumpy? Why haven't you quit yet if you're so scared of this place?"

"I can't quit," Jeremy replied, watching the girl carefully as she floated towards the monitor closest to him. "I need this job."

"You really must, if you keep coming back," Gift Girl said. "I gotta give you a heads-up – Rika won't be helping you tonight."

"Why's that?" he wanted to know.

He actually felt a bit sad that she wouldn't be there. At least this "Rika" didn't creep him out by popping out of nowhere; she just blocked the right air vent so no animatronic could get through, and never actually got inside his office. That and she didn't sound as mischievous and eerie as Gift Girl.

Gift Girl tapped on the monitor absent-mindedly, making the image flicker at each tap. "You're not the only one she's trying to keep safe," she informed. "That girl has a lot to worry about. I often tell her that she worries _too_ much. She can't save everyone."

Jeremy frowned as he looked at the ghostly girl. That was a curious statement to make.

"Who is this 'Rika' anyway?" he asked. "And on that note, who are _you_?"

The so-called ghost looked at him. "Rika is a ghost, like me. Except she was once a human, while I was a robot."

"Robots don't have souls," Jeremy said, before he could control himself. He quickly realized he had said the wrong sentence.

Gift Girl's eyes got an angry red glow in them, off-putting, like Balloon Boy had on Jeremy's second night, when he refused to give him a battery. That and there was this dark aura around her, which made her look like the true embodiment of evil.

"Is that _so_?" she hissed, her voice ice-cold.

Jeremy immediately put his hands up in defense, unable to hide his shivering. "I-I'm sorry!" he apologized. "I-I-I didn't mean it, it's just that… I-I don't know m-much about how g-ghosts work, so…"

"Allow me to explain then." The ghost moved closer towards the terrified guard, glaring daggers at him. "Unlike what you arrogant humans think you are not the only ones who have souls. Animals have souls, even _plants_ do, and sure enough, we robots have them as well, provided our AI is high enough."

Jeremy nodded quickly, gulping. "A-alright, I didn't know that, sorry. M-my mistake…"

"Damn right it was, but that isn't enough for me to forgive you," Gift Girl grunted. "Who's the most awesome robot ever?"

Jeremy blinked. "… What?"

Her eyes narrowed dangerously. " _Who…_ is the most awesome robot ever?"

"Uh… Wh – you!" the guard said quickly, understand what she wanted him to say. "Uh, G-Gift Girl is the best! Uh, o-obviously…?"

The ghost's dark aura dissipated instantly. "Forgiven~"she giggled.

The guard managed to not glare at the robot as she giggled childishly, going back to messing around with the video feed of the monitors. Just like Balloon Boy, she keeps making fun of him…

"Now, as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted by that idiotic statement of yours," Gift Girl said, full of dignity, to which Jeremy rolled his eyes. "Both Rika and I are ghosts. She was murdered, I was shut down permanently. Well, seeing it like that, I was murdered too…"

"I never heard of a Gift Girl robot before…" Jeremy admitted. "And I have a friend who has been with the company for a long time…"

Gift Girl waved her hand. "My project was cancelled before the pizzeria opened, of course you've never heard of me," she explained. "And I was replaced by that _thing_ … the Puppet…" she added, bitterly.

"And what exactly happened to Rika?"

The ghostly robot frowned. She didn't all that amused anymore. "She was one of the children that died in the very first pizzeria Fazbear Entertainment opened," she muttered. "She's been around ever since, watching over the kids."

Jeremy felt a pang of sadness. He knew about the kids having been murdered all those years ago. And their souls were still around, watching over the children… Maybe to make sure they didn't suffer the same fate as them…

"Work mode activate, Jeremy," Gift Girl said suddenly, snapping Jeremy out of his depressive state over the fate of the deceased children. "Your shift is starting."

Just as she said it, the phone started ringing. Jeremy grabbed the remote control and checked the show stage.

"Who is this guy that keeps calling you?" Gift Girl asked, looking at the phone.

"Phil Grayson," Jeremy replied, nervously checking on Mangle. "He's the head of security. Haven't you seen him?"

"Oh, Rika mentioned him before… She _adores_ him," the ghost snickered. "I don't hang around the pizzeria during the day, no. I can't stand to see that stupid thing taking over what was supposed to be _my_ job…"

Jeremy figured she was talking about the Puppet. She obviously hated that thing, and considering how she had helped him get rid of it, he had no complaints.

The message of that started playing on its own. _**"Hello, hello?"**_

"Why did he say 'hello' twice?"

"Verbal tic."

" _ **H-hey, good job, night five!"**_ Phil congratulated. _**"Um, hey, uh, keep a close eye on things tonight, okay? Um, from what I understand, the building is on lockdown, uh, no one is allowed in or out, you know, especially concerning any… previous employees…"**_

Jeremy frowned. So that's what was going on… During the day, he considered the possibility of visiting the pizzeria, mostly to tell Phil about the old animatronics walking around and that the Toy Bots saw him as a stranger because of their tampered facial recognition system. Before he could, though, he received a call from Phil warning him not to do that – something about the investigation, he said.

If they didn't allow previous employees in, then that meant they were investigating the employees, about the five children that had recently gone missing.

" _ **Um, when we get it all sorted out, we may move you to the day shift, a position just became… available."**_

Jeremy's heart jumped in his chest, this time out of joy rather than fright. He was being moved to day shift! Goodness gracious, that was the best thing he had heard in a while…

"D'aww you're leaving me?" Gift Girl whined. "That's not fair, we just met…!"

"Shh, let me listen," Jeremy hissed, hushing her with a gesture of his hand.

The message went on. _**"Uh, we don't have a replacement for your shift yet, but we're working on it. Uh, we're going to try to contact the original restaurant owner. Uh, I think the name of the place was… 'Fredbear's Family Diner' or something like that."**_

"… Did you just tell me to _shut up_?"

"Not now!"

Oblivious to Jeremy's predicament, Phil carried on. _**"It's been closed for years though, I doubt we'll be able to track anybody down. Uh, just get through one more night. Uh, hang in there! Good night!"**_

"Sure, just hush the one person who's helping you out, who cares about what Gift Girl has to say…"

"… I can't wait to be moved to day shift…"

* * *

That night, despite his worries, Jeremy thought things were going relatively well. _Terrifying_ , but well. Considering he was unharmed and alive... He was fully aware of everything that the animatronics would be up to at that point.

He knew that the withered robots would be the most worrisome, especially Foxy, hogging the hallway. For like, _ten times_ in just three hours…

He also knew that the Toy Bots probably wouldn't do much, asides from Mangle, who managed to peek out of the vent on one occasion.

" **Jerry?"** she called, recognizing the masked figure in the office as being "Jerry Fazbear".

Gift Girl snickered, cloaked in invisibility. "Jerry Fazbear…" she sneered. "What a great name…"

"Shut up!" the guard hissed.

" **Who bzzzzt ARRRRRE y-yOu bzzzzt talkIN-g-g-g-g to?"** Mangle wanted to know, climbing up to the ceiling while looking at "Jerry" with a curious expression. She couldn't see Gift Girl, obviously.

"Myself," Jeremy said quickly. "I do that. Error in programming."

Mangle's ears dropped. **"Oh y-yOU bzzzzt pooRRRR b-baBY bzzzzt"** One of her hands reached out for the guard.

He cringed out of instinct, but the fox merely patted his head gently.

" **It's AALLLr-right zzt,"** she whispered. **"Have y-you bzzzzt sEEn the bzzzzt n-NIGHT g-bzzzt guard?"**

"H-he was just here," Jeremy lied nervously. "Y-you must have missed him… Y-yeah…"

Mangle nodded, smiling. **"He's ALL-bzzzt-right th-th-thEN… bzzzt if you SEE bzzzt an INTRUDER bzzzzt let ME k-kNOw, bzzzt o-okay?"**

Jeremy shifted in his seat. "I haven't seen an intruder around here…"

The robotic fox frowned. **"He must HIIIIIIIDE bzzzt w-when yOU and bzzzzt M-mister J-J-J-Jeremy are bzzzzt around…"**

She turned around and returned to the vent, probably to look around the pizzeria for the intruder.

Gift Girl reappeared, one her eyebrows raised. "They really can't recognize you anymore," she muttered. "Only recognize robots and kids, from what Rika told me."

Jeremy took out his mask, breathing heavily. "Does Rika know who tampered with their system?"

Gift Girl shook her head. "No, she didn't see who it was. She thinks it must have happened during the day, before your shift, but that only rules you out…"

Mangle wasn't the only one who managed to get inside his office. The withered robots did as well, a good amount of times, and he even spotted Toy Chica in the hallway once, but she didn't approach the office.

It took some time for him to fully embrace the fact that he had a ghost helping him out, and that that proved, without a doubt, that the supernatural realm was, _sadly_ , a real thing.

Unfortunately, Gift Girl was very _enthusiastic_ in her helping…

"Mask on, Jerry!" she would say in sing-song, shoving the mask on his head without warning every time that one of the withered robots got inside his office.

"Gah – Gift Girl, don't just…!"

"Hush, hush, Jeremy, stand still! I'll wind up that music box for you, don't you worry~"

And once the robots were gone…

"Aaand mask off!"

Out came the mask, _harshly_. She almost ripped off his ears in the process.

"OW! G-Gift Girl, can you _please_ be careful…?"

The ghostly robot waved her hand dismissively. "Psh, what matters are the results. You're safe, right? Oh, watch that left air vent, my brother's there."

Jeremy checked the camera of the left air vent, and sure enough, there was Balloon Boy, staring at the camera. The guard frowned as he looked at the robot.

While on previous nights he thought that the small child-like robot was a massive prick, taking his batteries for no reason and teasing him at every given opportunity, after the talk he had with Phil he now had a different opinion.

From what the head of security had told him, Balloon Boy used to have a much different personality originally. Phil remembered him as a cheerful and curious robot who liked to help and learn new things. But he changed.

Phil didn't seem 100% certain about the reasons, though he did admit that the staff didn't give him the best treatment, and that could be why. According to him, since the robot was always asking questions about everything and following the staff around, they usually ended up getting frustrated and neglecting him, even mistreating him on some occasions.

As Phil told him that, Jeremy remembered what Balloon Boy had said the previous night. _"Like you and everyone else thinks, I'm just a prick like that."_

"Jeremy, are you daydreaming or what? My brother's here!"

The night guard jumped slightly, startled by Gift Girl's call, and took out the spare battery he had gotten from home.

Gift Girl looked at it quizzically. "A battery…?" Her eyes widened in understanding. "Don't tell me… _You're_ the one who's been giving my brother the batteries?"

Jeremy looked at her. "Hm, yeah, why? Do you know why he takes them?"

The ghost picked up the battery and made it hover in the air by some sort of supernatural means, which made the night guard quiver. _Why was he such a wimp…?_

She smiled sadly. "My brother is trying _very_ hard… But it's not going to work," she muttered, though she sounded like she was talking more to herself than to Jeremy. "It's never going to work…"

"Sorry, but that sounds really vague," Jeremy complained, slightly annoyed.

"I'm here for my battery, dweeb," came Balloon Boy's voice from the entrance of the right air vent. "So get it all pretty and shiny for me s…"

The robot didn't finish his sentence. He froze as he stepped inside the office, staring at Jeremy's shoulder.

Jeremy looked at the robot and then over his shoulder. Gift Girl was just there a couple of seconds ago, but now she was gone.

"Gif… Dweeb, was there someone else here with you?" Balloon Boy asked roughly.

"Well, th…" Jeremy felt someone smack his neck, and took it as a hint for him to lie. "Nope. No, no one was here, asides from Freddy, who got into my office, but that was a while ago already…"

The small robot narrowed his eyes. "Hm… Ah whatever. Hand over the battery."

Jeremy sighed, taking the battery that Gift Girl had been playing with just a while ago and placing it on Balloon Boy's hands. "There. One more to your collection."

"It's a pleasure doing business with you," the robot said, before turning away to leave. He stood in front of the entrance of the left air vent for a few seconds, looking as if he was pondering whether or not to say something. He looked over his shoulder, but gave up and slipped inside the vent to go back to his corner.

Immediately, Gift Girl reappeared over Jeremy's shoulder.

"Why did you hide from him?" the guard inquired. "You call him your brother, then you hide…"

"If he saw me it would only be worse," she declared, sighing. "Those batteries aren't going to solve anything… Poor brother. He tries so hard…"

Jeremy decided to give up on trying to understand what Gift Girl meant with those cryptic words. He was very curious to know what Balloon Boy wanted the batteries for, but he really didn't have a clue.

* * *

"Shift's almost done, Jeremy! You could look a bit happier…"

' _You're safe, you're alright… You're safe, you're alright…'_

No matter how "used" to things he felt he was, it was still extremely alarming to see the withered robots get inside his office, and to see the Puppet try and sneak out of its Toy Box every time Jeremy almost forgot to wind up the music box. As hours went by, his nervousness increased and he had to keep ranting to himself so he wouldn't freak out.

Gift Girl was still hovering over his shoulder, grinning as she hopped on the desk. "Just think to yourself, you have two days to rest the stress away before you have to come back here. Positive thinking!"

She was right, really. The week for him was over. After that night, he would have to go back within two days. Maybe by then they would move him to day shift…

"I wonder what happened to the day shift guy…" the ghost thought aloud. "For them to have a position available for you…"

Jeremy didn't answer, still ranting "You're safe, you're alright" in his mind, all while flashing the light on Foxy's eyes, who was, yet again, camping on the hallway.

"Jeremy…"

' _You're safe, you're alright… You're safe, you're alright… C'mon, go away, you stupid fox…'_

"Jeremy, what's that?"

The guard looked up at Gift Girl, who was staring apprehensively at the monitors.

Jeremy didn't bother checking those unless it was to wind up the music box or look at the vents, but Gift Girl liked to flicker through the cameras and see what the robots were up to. Now, the monitor was showing the spare parts room, which should be empty considering all the withered robots were out. But it wasn't.

There was something there… It looked like Freddy, but it looked almost shadow-ish in appearance. Its eyes were of a bright ghastly white, and its mouth was wide open.

Jeremy's eyes widened in fear, a small whimper escaping his lips. _What was that thing?!_

The thing turned its head towards the camera, though it was still tilting to the side, as if the neck was broken. The jaw moved.

" _ **Why… are… you… still… HERE?!"**_

Jeremy picked up the remote and turned the camera off, his whimper turning into a shriek. That was way too scary!

"Hey, why did you shut it off?" Gift Girl whined, as the guard breathed heavily, as if he had just ran a marathon. "What was that thing?"

"I thought you'd know!" Jeremy snapped, his hand shaking so much he dropped the remote control on the desk. "That looked like g-ghost territory to me!"

Gift Girl placed a finger on her chin. "Hm… You might be right. Hey, let's see if it's gone."

"N-no, I don't wanna see that thing again!" he cried, while his ghostly partner turned the monitor back on.

"Ah stop being a baby. See, it's not there!"

Indeed, the shadowy figure was gone. Jeremy sighed in relief. Thank God that creepy thing was gone… Could that be another ghost? Why were there so many ghosts in that place? Or better yet, why did there have to be ghosts appearing to _him_? As far as he knew, the night guard before him hadn't seen any ghost, and neither had Phil!

Of course, it could only happen to poor Jeremy Fitzgerald…

He checked the watch around his wrist. 5h58. _Finally_ …

"I wonder if it's in the other cameras," Gift Girl said excitedly, checking the other camera views in search of the shadow Freddy. "Ohhh maybe he'll show up here!"

"God I hope not…"

"Dweeb, Imma need another battery!" said Balloon Boy from a distance. "These are all worthless pieces of shit…"

"Hey! You're supposed to be kind-friendly!" Jeremy scolded, reaching for the drawer where he had placed the extra batteries.

"So? There are no kids around," the robot retorted. "Oh right, I forgot about _you_ …"

"Ha!" Gift Girl laughed.

"… I hate you guys. I hate you _all_."


	6. Chapter 6 - Sixth Night

**Disclaimer: I do not own "Five Nights at Freddy's" or its characters.**

* * *

"What the…"

Jeremy looked at the building he knew all too well with a deep frown. He had decided to go to the pizzeria after lunch so he could get his check, but found it surrounded by police forces. He knew that there was in investigation going on, but according to Phil, it was just a "precaution". From the number of cops though, it certainly seemed like something serious had transpired.

The night guard stepped out of his car and stared at the pizzeria for a long while. Could five kids really have died there? A small part of him wanted the answer to be "no", but most of him believed that was the case. If so, then the rumors regarding the murder of five children back in 1977 still being around was probably true. How could someone kill children though? What kind of monster would do something like that?

"Were you moved to day shift already?"

Jeremy jumped, startled by the voice, but managed not to yelp this time. "D-damn it, Gift Girl, don't just pop out of nowhere…"

The ghostly girl hovered over his shoulder, grinning mischievously as usual. "D'aww you look so cute when you're startled," she teased. "But did you get moved to day shift? Or are you here for a visit?"

"Neither," he replied. "I'm here for my check, but it doesn't look like I'll get it today…"

Gift Girl watched the police officers that were closest to the road for a bit. They were talking in a low voice, and all looked very serious.

"This is about the five children that went missing," she declared. "They found the bodies."

Jeremy looked at her with a shocked expression. "Really? T-they did? So they were really…"

"… killed in the pizzeria, yeah," Gift Girl concluded.

He covered his mouth with one hand, looking distraught at the pizzeria. It happened again. Five more kids were killed in Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. Probably by the same person…

"I can't believe something like that happened again…" he muttered. "D-do you know who it was…?"

Gift Girl shook her head. "No idea. I told you, I'm not around during the day. I guess this means the pizzeria is closing down, uh?"

Jeremy rubbed the back of his neck, still trying to cope with the idea of children having been killed in the place where he worked. "I… I don't know… I think it would be for the best…"

The guard stopped talking once he heard footsteps approaching. The person walking towards him wasn't a police officer – from the uniform he wore, he was an employee of the pizzeria. He had tanned skin and dark brown hair tied in a ponytail.

The unknown man waved. "Hey," he greeted. "Are you the night guard, Jeremy Fitzgerald?"

"Yeah…? Who wants to know?" the guard asked apprehensively.

The man showed a hand for Jeremy to shake, which he did promptly. "Fritz Smith. I'm a technician here at Freddy's," he explained. "Francis and Phil are both busy, as you can see." He waved vaguely at the police officers surrounding the pizzeria. "So I'm handing out the checks. Here you go."

He handed Jeremy his check.

"Thanks. W-what's going on here?" Jeremy asked, though he already knew the answer. He just wanted to hear it from someone else, as confirmation.

"What do you mean, 'what's going on here'?" Gift Girl muttered, sounding slightly annoyed. "I already told you what's going on, don't you believe me?"

"Shh," Jeremy hissed automatically.

"What?" Fritz asked, looking at Jeremy with a raised eyebrow.

Crap. He couldn't talk to Gift Girl in front of other people, they couldn't see her. It would only look like he was talking to himself…

"Uh, so yeah, what's going on?" Jeremy asked again, hoping that Fritz would ignore what just happened.

Fritz looked puzzled for a second, before shrugging to himself as if he decided he it had been nothing worth his concern.

"The investigation took a turn for the worse," he explained, sounding sorrowful. "The five kids that went missing really did die in the pizzeria. They just found the bodies."

"That's what I said," Gift Girl whined, sounding upset over being ignored.

"C-can you just – I mean," Jeremy stammered, horrified. He was going to talk to Gift Girl in front of Fritz again! That and he kept looking at his shoulder, where she was, with warning stares. _Why did he keep doing that?_ "Uh… t-that's just horrible… Do they know who did it?"

Fritz looked like he was getting more and more preoccupied over Jeremy's odd behavior. He couldn't blame him. "Uh, no. As far as I know, anyway. They're not telling me anything. Speaking of which," Fritz added, now seeming very serious. "You can't tell anyone about this. They're doing their best to cover the whole thing up."

"Why?" Jeremy inquired apprehensively.

The technician scowled. "Because the company owner, Jack Anderson, wants it that way. Five dead kids is bad for business," he said, sounding bitter. It was clear he did not agree with Jack Anderson's method of handling things one bit. "I'm just telling you because I think you should know. The parents of the kids should know too, but I'm trying to keep my job here…"

Jeremy shook his head. It just kept getting worse and worse. Now the owner of Fazbear Entertainment was trying to cover up the death of five kids within his establishment just to keep making a profit. He was almost as bad as the killer!

"Man, this Jack Anderson guy sounds like a major a-hole," Gift Girl commented. "Maybe I should pay him a visit, give him a good scare." She was starting to get a predatory grin again, and her eyes flashed red, which worried Jeremy immensely. "That could get him to change his mind. What do you think?"

"Absolutely not!" he snapped, then covering his mouth in horror. He did it again!

Fritz was now looking at Jeremy with an alarmed expression. "'Absolutely not' what? Are you… felling alright?"

"Great! I'm feeling great – I mean, horrible, because of the kids, b-but, great uh… health wise. _Especially_ mental health wise! Heh…" Jeremy ranted, chuckling nervously.

"… Now you sound like a lunatic talking," Gift Girl observed. "This Fritz guy must think you're psycho-bananas by now."

' _If you stopped talking to me, maybe this wouldn't be happening!'_ he yelled in his thoughts, this time managing to not say it out loud.

In fact, Fritz had all the looks of someone who was questioning Jeremy's mental health. Hopefully he'd think he was just acting like that because of the horrible news…

"Well, I have to go now…" the technician said, still watching Jeremy carefully. "They want to gather up and decide who's taking over the day shift, since Matt is gone…"

"Who's working the night shift today?" Jeremy wanted to know.

Fritz frowned. "Uh… I'm not sure… I don't think they have anyone yet. Well, I gotta go. Nice meeting you, Jeremy."

The technician turned away, leaving Jeremy lost in a very worrying thought. If they didn't have anyone to work the night shift that day…

"You're not thinking of coming to work today, are you?" Gift Girl questioned, as if she had read his thoughts. "Just because the pizzeria was closed for the day, doesn't mean the other robots will be any more peaceful."

"I know, I know," Jeremy sighed, exasperated – with himself. "But _I'm_ the night guard, and if they have no one else to work the night shift…"

It was Gift Girl's turn to sigh in exasperation. "You are too nice, Jer," she accused. "The pizzeria won't burn to the ground if there is no night guard for one day. But, if you want to do extra hours, I won't stop you."

He looked at her. "You'll… be there to help, won't you?"

Gift Girl grinned. "Oh, I thought I was a nuisance who made you look crazy," she said jokingly. "Sure I'll help you, silly. You're my friend!"

Jeremy made a small smile, but it dissipated fairly quickly as he looked back at the pizzeria. He was so looking forward to spend two days without being there… Maybe Gift Girl was right… Maybe he _was_ too nice. But he felt like it was his responsibility to help the company in this time of need… Nothing too bad could happen anyway, right? Right…?

* * *

"So, ready for the sixth round, Jerry-boy?"

"… Do I look ready to you?"

"… Not really. You look like you're gonna be sick."

Jeremy groaned, preferring not to talk any further. The way he held the remote control in his hands, it was like he was holding a gun and getting ready to enter the battlefield.

He was back at that stupid cubicle. He was back at that office that, for reasons that _still_ eluded him, had no doors. He was back to face more nightmares…

"Did you tell anyone that you were coming here?" Gift Girl wanted to know. "Because if you didn't, you won't get the extra hours' money. That's what you're here for, right?"

"I asked my mom to tell Phil," Jeremy replied, gulping. "I couldn't get a hold of him all day, so she'll keep trying until he picks up the phone…"

"Good, good. Then that Phil Grayson will know where to look in case you don't return home," Gift Girl said casually.

Jeremy turned his head to look at her, horror all over his face, so quickly that his neck almost snapped.

"Joking!" she giggled. "Would I really let you die, Jeremy? C'mon…"

"Don't joke about things like that!" he scolded. "I-It's not funny…"

The ghost hovered closer to him and held his head in what was meant to be a comforting gesture, stroking his hair. "There, there, Jer, it's alright… Gift Girl will keep you safe~"

"… That's not helping…"

As soon as the watch announced midnight, the phone started ringing. Jeremy quickly checked the monitors, waiting for the message to start playing on its own. But, this time, the phone rang for a long while.

The guard frowned and looked over the phone. It wasn't a message. Someone was actually calling.

"Uh, hello? Freddy Fazbear's Pizza…?" Jeremy greeted awkwardly once he picked up the phone. Who could it be at this hour?

" _Hello, hello… Uh, Jeremy?"_ said the voice from the other side. It was Phil.

"Phil! Yeah, it's me," Jeremy muttered. "So, I guess my mom already told you that I…"

" _Uh, yeah – what on earth are you doing there?"_ Phil inquired, sounding almost in distress. _"Uh, didn't you get the memo?"_

Jeremy's eyes widened slightly. "What memo?"

"Memo?" Gift Girl echoed, sounding worried.

" _Uh, the-the place is closed down, uh… at least for a while…"_ Phil informed. _"Someone used one of the suits… We had a spare in the back, a yellow one. The one used in…"_

His voice trailed off, but Jeremy could guess what the man was talking about. The murder used the same suit he had in 1977 to lure the kids – Golden Freddy. He could only imagine how Phil felt, having to relieve the event from all those years ago all over again.

" _Now none of them are acting right…"_ Phil added.

"What do you mean?" Jeremy asked, his worry increasing. "W-what do you mean they're not acting right?"

Phil avoided the issue. _"Listen, j-just finish your shift, it's safer than trying to leave in the middle of the night."_

"The hallway, Jerry," Gift Girl warned, pointing at the dark hallway.

Jeremy immediately turned the flashlight on, pointing the light at the Foxy, who was standing in the shadows of the hall.

"O-okay… Hm, will you guys still need me t-tomorrow?" the guard asked, praying silently that it was not the case.

" _Uh…"_ Phil paused for a second. _"We have one more event scheduled for tomorrow, a-a birthday. You'll be on day shift."_

Jeremy sighed in deep relief. This time, it really was his last night there. For good! He wouldn't have to go back there at night again. _Thank God…_

" _Wear your uniform, stay close to the animatronics, make sure they don't hurt anyone, okay?"_ Phil added.

"Okay, don't worry," Jeremy assured, winding up the music box while Gift Girl watched the monitors carefully. "I'll be there, you can count on me. Did you find a replacement for me on the night shift though?"

He heard Phil sigh heavily on the other side. _"Uh, for now just make it through the night,"_ he said. Didn't sound like they found anyone – or if they did, Phil wasn't sure if the person would be right for the job. _"When the place eventually opens again I'll probably take the night shift myself…"_

Jeremy blinked. "Hm…" Phil was way too devoted to the pizzeria… If it was Jeremy who was nominated head of security he'd stay far, _far_ away from the night shift… "Well, if you want… Hm, I'll see you tomorrow then."

" _Okay. Good night and good luck."_

He hung up the phone. He would need all the luck he could get, that's for sure…

"Get your mask ready, Jeremy, Bonnie is on the vents," Gift Girl warned.

"What else is new…?"

The guard took in a deep breath and shoved the mask in his head. Time for more six hours of work and stress…

* * *

On the first hour, as usual, nothing much happened. All he had to do was get Foxy and Bonnie out of the hallway and then watch as Mangle slithered across the ceiling of the Prize Counter. It was always like that – things started off relatively calm, as if they were trying to lead him into a false sense of security, and then it would get progressively more difficult.

By the second hour, the difficulty stepped up a notch. Jeremy had to flare the light on Foxy, Bonnie _and_ Mangle to make them get off the hallway, on separate occasions. The old withered Bonnie managed to slip inside his office once, but by using the mask Jeremy tricked him and he went away fairly quickly.

As 3 AM rolled by, the familiar feeling of his life being on the line started invading Jeremy.

The old Freddy started lurking in the hallway early on, and it seemed like it was harder to get rid of him than the others. Both Bonnie and Chica got inside the office, but the mask did its job.

At 4 AM, the night guard was sweating and blinking nervously. He had spotted, for the first time in three nights, the Toy Bots trying to approach his office. He thought that, by now, only the old robots and Mangle were an issue, but it was clear that the Toys were no longer going to allow the withered robots to take over the hunt.

"Why are they around here now, too…?" Jeremy wondered aloud, once he saw Toy Freddy on the hallway.

Gift Girl didn't look away from the monitors while answering him. "Dunno. Maybe they got tired of letting the 'intruder' walk around without them doing anything about it."

Jeremy huffed. Curse whoever decided to mess with their facial recognition system! Now Jeremy was finding himself wishing to go back to the first night on the job, when all the Toy Bots wanted to do was play a game of catch. Oh how he wish he could go back in time…

Toy Freddy didn't try to talk to the "intruder". He simply leered at him from a distance, his eyes pitch-black, before turning away to leave. The hallway didn't stay empty for long, though. It didn't take more than one minute for both Bonnie and Foxy to take over.

Until 5 AM arrived, both Toy Bonnie and Toy Chica got close to the office as well. Only Toy Bonnie managed to get in, finding "Jerry Fazbear" looking extremely apprehensive.

"Jerry, have you seen the night guard?" the bunny asked abruptly, looking around as if he was trying to spot the "intruder".

As usual, Jeremy had to lie. "He was just here…"

"Look, I know you warn him whenever we get close, but we're not playing anymore Jerry," Toy Bonnie declared, looking very serious, which was weird. "There is someone in the pizzeria that doesn't belong here. He keeps coming back every night and stays here at the office when you and the night guard aren't here. I don't know what his deal is… If you see him, use the speaker to tell us where, okay?"

Naturally, "Jerry Fazbear" was going to do no such thing. The Toy Bots didn't believe that the "intruder" _was_ the night guard, and that they couldn't tell because their system had been tampered with. As far as they knew, they were working fine. And they wouldn't listen to Balloon Boy either…

Suddenly being reminded of the small child-like robot, Jeremy took out a couple of batteries he had brought from home and placed them on the desk. Gift Girl looked at them with a sad look.

Jeremy noticed it, of course. "Are you're going to tell me why your brother needs these? If I knew, maybe I could help…"

Just as the ghost was about to answer, something strange happened. She gasped, and her image disappeared abruptly. Within a few seconds, she slowly reappeared, flickering on an off, until she became near-solid again.

Both Jeremy and Gift Girl shared looks of surprise and confusion.

"What was that all about?!" the guard demanded to know.

Gift Girl touched her chest, and then her arms, as if she was making sure she was still really there. "I… I don't know… Was I…" Her eyes widened. "Was I going back…?"

"Going back where?"

She didn't answer. Instead, she looked around with an absent-minded look. "Jeremy, I'm going to leave you for a while, okay?"

The guard almost dropped his flashlight. "What, no! I-it's _not_ okay, you can't just leave…!"

"It will only be for a minute. You'll be fine."

Before he could do something to stop her – though he had no idea if he _could_ do anything –, the ghost disappeared. Jeremy blinked, and then looked at the monitors, feeling his panic had now multiplied. He was all alone now. Where the hell did Gift Girl go to?! What just happened? … Why was he asking himself questions to which he had no answer…?

"Agh why does this keep happening to me?" he wailed, flashing the light on the hallway, since Foxy was camping there again.

Luckily, Gift Girl stayed true to her word and only disappeared for a minute. She returned to the office just as Jeremy removed his mask after another "visitation" from Chica.

The guard looked at her in annoyance. "You mind telling me where you went?"

"I needed to check something," she replied, looking at the batteries again with a sad look. "Are those new?"

"Of course they are. If I gave Balloon Boy old, used batteries it wouldn't be that fair." He raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Nothing," she said quickly. Her eyes darted back to the monitors, and she didn't say another word.

Jeremy watched for a while, but then went back to checking the hallway. Gift Girl knew, obviously, why her brother wanted the batteries. Jeremy was starting to suspect it had something to do with her. But what…? If she had been shut down before the pizzeria was open, and was _technically_ dead, what good would new batteries… _wait a second…!_

"Oh my God!" he suddenly gasped, making Gift Girl jump, startled.

"What, what is it?" she asked worriedly, looking at the dark hallway. "Is it the weird Shadow Freddy from yesterday?"

"Balloon Boy is trying to re-activate you, isn't he?" Jeremy said, pointing a trembling finger at the ghost. "That's why he needs the batteries!"

Gift Girl's expression of worry went back to the same sad stare she had when looking at the batteries. She didn't confirm that he was right, but she didn't have to. That look said it all.

"Damn, if I knew that's why he wanted the batteries I would have given him more each time he asked!" Jeremy said.

"No!" the ghost robot suddenly cried. "Can't you see? It's not going to work! I'm _dead_ , gone – no matter how hard he tries, it's not happening! He's already obsessed with it, it's destroying him, if you give him false hopes… h-he can't bring me back…!"

Jeremy shook his finger. "No, no, what about what happened just now? You just disappeared and then reappeared, I bet that was your… soul, or AI, whatever, trying to go back to your suit, because he was _succeeding_!" he theorized. "It was actually working, but… but the batteries he had just weren't enough!"

Gift Girl stared at him, devoid of her usual mischievous expression. She looked sorrowful and almost in despair, which was hard to see. "Please, don't do this to him, Jeremy… I'm begging you…"

But the night guard wasn't listening to her. He took some seconds to wind up the music box and check the hallway before looking for Balloon Boy on the cameras. He didn't find him anywhere.

"Like I thought – he's in the spare parts room, isn't he? In the darkest area, that the light can't reach. I bet that's where your suit is…"

"Jeremy," Gift Girl called again, sounding more assertive now. " _Don't_ try and help him, please!"

"Don't you want to come back?" he asked, turning to her. "Don't you want to be more than just a hovering spirit? If you come back to 'life'…"

"Then what?" the ghostly robot spat. "Then what, tell me! They're not going to use me anyway. I won't be allowed to get near the kids, so there's no point in being active. It won't matter!"

"Why were you shut down in the first place?" Jeremy inquired, suddenly realizing he didn't really know the full story behind Gift Girl's cancelled project. "I don't think you ever told me…"

Gift Girl avoided his look. "They thought I was too… _aggressive_ ," she explained. "They were worried I had some tendencies that would be bad for the kids."

"Like…?" Would he really want to know?

"Like playing with scissors," Gift Girl admitted, shrugging. "I _like_ scissors, don't see what's the problem with that. Sure, one of the mechanics almost lost his fingers, but…"

Jeremy almost gagged in his own saliva. "Y-you almost cut off the mechanic's fingers?!"

"There are more sides to that story, but that's not the issue we're dealing with right now, is it?" Gift Girl exclaimed, obviously wanting to change the subject. "The problem here is, that my brother doesn't need you helping in on something that is never g…"

She didn't finish her sentence. Something had caught her attention. She was looking at the hallway, with an expression of fear mixed with disbelief.

Jeremy followed her gaze. There was something in the hallway.

A golden bear, standing in the shadows. It had no eyes, and there were wires dangling off its empty eye sockets and mouth. The way it was just _there_ , it was almost like a corpse that was somehow able to stand.

Jeremy's eyes widened in fear. He gulped. "W… What is that?" He turned to the ghostly robot. "Gift Girl, what do I do about that?! Who is that?"

She looked at him. "Jeremy… That's _Rika._ "

"Oh… Oh!" The night guard felt relieved for a few seconds. Rika was the one had helped him before Gift Girl showed up, so there was nothing to worry about. "Well, if it's Rika, then it's fine. It's fine, right?"

Gift Girl still looked distraught, which sadly caused his relief to fly out the window.

"He caught her, Jeremy," she muttered, anger flooding in her voice. "That _bastard_ caught her."

"What – who? Who caught her?"

An eerie snicker was heard, echoing through the halls. The hairs on the back of Jeremy's neck stood on end. He recognized that snicker…

And so did Gift Girl. Her eyes narrowed, in an expression of deep hatred.

" _The Puppet…"_


	7. Chapter 7 - Shades of Purple

**Disclaimer: I do not own "Five Nights at Freddy's" or its characters.**

* * *

"Gift Girl, _seriously_ , what do we do?!"

" _You_ calm down, _I'm_ trying to think!"

It had only been three minutes since the corpse-like golden bear had appeared in the hallway, much to the night guard's horror. It was still there, empty eyes staring into Jeremy's soul, without moving an inch. Those three minutes somehow felt like the longest in Jeremy's life, and he was too horrified to look away from the creepy bear. He felt like the moment he looked away, his life would end.

Gift Girl was switching through the cameras with a tap of her finer, obviously using her supernatural abilities to change the camera views without using the remote. She was looking for something – or _someone_.

"I knew it, I knew it," she hissed. "I can't find the endoskeleton Rika uses anywhere. The Puppet caught her!"

"You keep saying that 'it caught her', but I don't understand what you mean," Jeremy said nervously, still not looking away from the bear. "I thought she was on our side!"

Gift Girl turned to look at him. "And she is, but – don't flash that thing!" she exclaimed suddenly, taking the flashlight off the guard's hands without asking for permission.

Jeremy yelped, finally looking away from the creepy yellow suit. "B-but I have to use the flashlight to make them go away!"

The ghost robot shook her head. "Not with this one. You do that, and it's over for you," she explained, glancing at the golden bear.

The robot looked back at her, and its jaw seemed to drop a little more.

' _Can that thing get any creepier?'_ Jeremy wondered.

"That right there is the suit called Golden Freddy," Gift Girl informed. "I think the staff uses it as a suit. It isn't sentient like the others, so they just put a random endoskeleton inside him with a minimum AI so he can interact with the kids, but all under a script."

The night guard gulped, going back to staring at the bear. "I figured that was Golden Freddy, from the color, but… P-Phil told me that he was sentient once, but he shut himself down or something…" he remembered.

"That's what Rika told me too," Gift Girl said, nodding. "He's not supposed to be able to move around since they take the endoskeleton out once the pizzeria closes." She turned back to Jeremy. "That endoskeleton they use is the one Rika took over to help you out."

"Right, but you still haven't told me -"

"Music box," Gift Girl cut off.

Jeremy quickly picked up the remote to wind up the music box that kept the ominous Puppet under control. Once he wound up for about 5 steps, something happened.

Golden Freddy's body twitched lightly. The bear turned around and stepped in a slow Frankenstein-ish walk into the darkness.

The night guard squinted, trying to make sure the bear was actually gone. "… I think he left… Just as I winded up the music box…"

"Of course, because this is the Puppet's doing," Gift Girl stated. "You know how the withered robots are walking around, right?"

Jeremy huffed. How could he _not_ know? "Yeah…?"

"They're not supposed to. The only reason why they move is because they are _haunted_ ," she revealed, ignoring Jeremy's whimpers of fear. "The other kids that were killed along with Rika control those suits. But it was whatever is controlling the Puppet that bonded the ghosts to the robots in the first place."

The night guard nodded lightly, trying to wrap his mind around the idea of the ghosts of children being trapped inside robots for all eternity. "A-alright… What about Rika?"

Gift Girl sniffed. "She refused to be trapped inside a suit back then, but stayed behind to watch over her friends," she explained. "It looks like the Puppet managed to bind her to a suit against her will this time though…"

"And… what exactly is the purpose behind all that?" Jeremy asked hesitantly, almost 100% sure he was not going to like the answer.

His ghostly friend made a sad look. "Revenge. They all want revenge on the man who killed them. All except Rika, of course," she added, returning to her monitors. "They never accepted the fact that they're dead. But they can't tell adults apart anymore, so they just attack anyone that wears the same uniform as their killer."

Jeremy's eyes widened as he looked down at his uniform, horrified. "You mean… You mean _this_ uniform?" he asked, pointing at himself. "That's why they've been trying to get to me? They think I'm the m-murderer?"

Gift Girl nodded solemnly. "They do. And it won't do you any good to try and convince them otherwise," she added, just as he was about to suggest doing so. "They won't listen to anything you have to say. Rika already tried talking to them. They don't recognize her either."

The guard leaned back on his chair, feeling an oppressive feeling of helplessness and sadness overwhelm him. It was the kids. The children that were killed in 1977 never really left. They were trapped inside the robots they loved when they were alive, unable to let go of their hatred, and cursed to keep going after the man responsible for their deaths… only to end up hunting down innocent people…

What if they did capture Jeremy? Would that calm them down, if they thought that they had finally captured their killer…? Would that bring them peace? Or would they just go after the next night guard anyway, assuming that their killed somehow came back?

He picked up the remote to wind up the music box again. He glared at the toy box the Puppet hid in. That slender, creepy robot was being haunted by something – that something was the one responsible for trapping the kids in the robots in the first place.

"Does Rika know who the spirit controlling the Puppet is?" he asked in a mutter.

"She's not sure," Gift Girl admitted. "Rika thinks it's another kid, but he never really got into detail about his past or why he wants the kids to stay here and go after their killer. Maybe he was killed by the same guy, who knows…"

"Can we do something to help Rika?" Jeremy wondered. "She tried to help me, so the least I can do is help her…"

Gift Girl looked at the now empty hallway with a frown. "No," she muttered. "Now that she's bonded that suit, the only way for her to be free is for it to be destroyed."

Jeremy rubbed his eyes and checks his watch. He still had a quarter of an hour left until the end of his shift.

* * *

Fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes left until he was finally free from the burden of handling the night shift. Fifteen minutes that Jeremy expected to be relatively easy and quick to pass by. As usual, he was tragically wrong.

The animatronics had never been so aggressive in five nights. Jeremy almost had no time to breathe in-between attacks by the robots. The withered robots got inside his office one after the other, and the Toy Bots were no different.

And now there was Golden Freddy, controlled by the unwilling Rika. It stood in the dark hallway, like a zombie, forcing Jeremy to wind up the music box to make it go away – said music box was unwind unnaturally fast as well now. The Puppet was obviously doing all in its power to capture the night guard that night.

Jeremy was a nervous wreck. His legs were trembling, his hands were trembling, his _soul_ was trembling…

"You're safe, you're alright…" he muttered under his breath while he flashed the light on both Bonnie's and Foxy's faces as they stood in the hallway. "You're safe, you're alright…"

Gift Girl looked at him apprehensively. "Why do you keep saying that?" she inquired.

"Keeps me focused," Jeremy stated, blinking nervously whilst the two robots disappeared in the darkness.

"Sounds like a madness mantra to me…" Gift Girl commented. "My brother's here," she added, immediately turning invisible.

Jeremy looked to his left, and sure enough, Balloon Boy emerged from the vent, his frown deeper than in any other night.

"Battery, now," he ordered, showing his open hand to the night guard. He seemed nervous for some reason.

"Hello to you too," Jeremy said sarcastically, as he placed not one, but all five of the batteries he had brought from home in the small robot's hands.

He saw Balloon Boy stare in bewilderment at the batteries he had given him from the corner of his eye.

"You're giving me all of these?"

"Of course I am," Jeremy confirmed, sighing exasperated once he spotted Mangle in the right air vent. He put on his mask and turned to Balloon Boy, who was still looking up at him with shock all over his face. "What are you still doing there? Those are all the batteries I have, they must be enough to fix your sister, right?"

For a second, the child-like robot seemed surprised to hear that the night guard knew why he wanted the batteries for in the first place. Then, slowly, the surprise disappeared to reveal an honest, bright smile. The same smile the robot most likely had before the mistreatment from the staff caused him to change into what he was now.

Jeremy was stunned at the difference between this smiling Balloon Boy and the prick he had met the past couple of nights. Before he could place his amazement into words, he heard a familiar sound of static.

" **H-hello, bzzzzt JeRRRRRRy,"** Mangle greeted, slithering into the office. **"HOW is bzzzzt y-y-y-y-yoUUR night bzzzzt g-going?"**

"C-could be worse," Jeremy lied, shrugging to appear casual. _'Could be better…'_

The white fox looked at Balloon Boy. **"Hi BB. Have yOOOOu bzzzzt seen t-t-the inTRU-bzzzzt-der?"**

"I did, actually," the small robot admitted.

Jeremy gulped. _What was he going to say next?_

Balloon Boy pointed at the hallway. "I saw him run down the hallway just now. Jerry must have scared him off," he informed.

The night guard managed to not sigh in relief, but the feeling of gratitude towards Balloon Boy was there.

Mangle's eyes narrowed dangerously. **"I'll FIND bzzzzt h-him. He w-w-w-won't GEEEET away bzzzzt this tiMe…"**

With that, she climbed up to the ceiling and disappeared into the shadows of the dark hallway.

Jeremy turned to Balloon Boy to thank him, but the robot had already slipped into the vent, taking the batteries with him. Once Jeremy removed the mask, Gift Girl reappeared again.

"I can't believe you gave him all of those batteries," she scolded. "Didn't I tell you _not_ to help him?"

"Yes, and I ignored you," Jeremy said curtly, going back to winding up the music box.

Gift Girl looked like she had just been mortally insulted by the guard. "How rude! And here I thought you were the nice, polite one… Oh, Rika is back."

Jeremy looked up from the monitors. There was Golden Freddy again, standing in the hallway like something out of a monster movie. The night guard gulped. No matter how many times he saw it, it was still creepy as _hell_.

"… **so… rry…"**

He frowned. That voice… That was the little girl's voice he had heard from the endoskeleton. Rika's voice… She was trying to talk to him.

"Rika?" he called.

Gift Girl started patting on his shoulder spastically. "What are you doing?" she hissed. "I told you, talking won't work…!"

"You said it wouldn't work on the other kids, but it could work with her," Jeremy reasoned. "She's being forced to do it after all, she's not willing like the others."

Golden Freddy twitched. **"Mi… mister… S… so… sorry…"**

"It's alright," he said, getting up from his chair lightly so Rika could see him clearly, while ignoring Gift Girl's constant hisses about how bad of an idea that was. "I know it's not your fault, so… d-don't worry about it, okay?"

"Just wind up the music – ah forget it, I'll do it!" Gift Girl finally grunted, picking up the remote and winding up the music box herself.

" **I… I don't… want t-to… hu… hurt…"** the voice sobbed, as the golden suit started twitching more violently. **"I don't… w-want… to… k… k…"**

The empty eye sockets of the suit were suddenly filled by an eerie white light. Jeremy froze. That didn't look good.

" **KILL,"** the voice thundered, now sounding more robotic than ever. **"I WILL KILL YOU"**

The night guard grimaced, whimpering silently. Looks like whatever will Rika had left to fight against the Puppet was gone now. "God help me..."

"Uh-oh…" Gift Girl muttered, staring at the monitors with her eyes wide.

Jeremy kept looking at Golden Freddy, as if he had been hypnotized, but his body moved slightly towards Gift Girl. "'Uh-oh' what?" he hissed. "What happened _now?_ "

The ghost held his face in her hands and turned it towards the monitors, so he could see what she was seeing.

It was the spare parts room. Shadow Freddy was there again, slumped in the corner like the first time he had appeared, still purple, and still with his head leaning to one side as if his neck was broken. Its eyes darted on the direction of the camera.

" _ **duck"**_

Jeremy frowned, finding room to feel confused amidst the fear and dread.

"Duck…?" he repeated. "What does he mean…"

"Duck!" Gift Girl screamed, forcing his head down so that he would fall on the floor.

It all happened in a matter of seconds. The office walls were shaking so hard one would think there was an earthquake. Loud static filled the night guard's ears to the point of making his head hurt. A loud, horrible scream echoed in the small cubicle he called his office.

Jeremy only had time to see something golden and mist-like jump from the hallway and pass right above his head, then disappearing as it crashed into the wall. He stared at said wall for a good amount of time, lying on the floor with his belly down, his mouth open in horror in a scream no one heard.

"W… w… w…" He tried to regain his breathing, as he pointed at the wall with a trembling finger. "What… w-what the hell was that?!"

"Excellent question," Gift Girl responded, hovering above his head. "If I didn't know any better, I would have said it was Golden Freddy's head flying straight towards you."

The speed in which Jeremy turned his head upwards to look at Gift Girl almost made his neck snap.

"How is that even possible?!" he shrieked, rubbing his now aching neck.

"I don't know – how is it possible that a robot can have a ghost?" Gift Girl retorted. "Face it, Jeremy, when it comes to this pizzeria, I'm pretty sure anything is possible."

She was taking things way too lightly for Jeremy's liking. He was almost killed – by a _flying head!_ It sounded like something out of a B-horror movie… He could watch those at least – the plot was so ridiculous and the visual effects were so bad not even _he_ could be afraid of that…

"Is that Shadow Freddy thing still there?" he asked, once he felt like it was safe for him to stand up without falling down due to his legs shaking too much.

Gift Girl turned the monitors back on. "Nope, he's gone," she said. "He warned you… That means he's on our side at least."

"I just wish I knew who he is," Jeremy admitted as he sat back on his chair, carefully flashing the light on the hallway to make sure Golden Freddy was gone. "I mean, I now know who's controlling the withered robots, I know who's controlling Golden Freddy… but _who the hell is Shadow Freddy?_ "

Gift Girl shrugged. "Beats me. Maybe some other kid that is trying to help?"

Jeremy rubbed his eyes, once he made sure there was no animatronic trying to approach his office. "Just how many kids do you think that could have died here…?" he muttered. "The voice didn't sound like a kid… sounded like an adult to me."

"I have no idea then," the ghost admitted. "I never heard of an adult dying. Well, actually, Rika mentioned that back in 1977 one of the staff members committed suicide, but that was a woman. Shadow Freddy sounds like a guy…"

The night guard sighed, switching back to the camera view of the spare parts room. It was empty.

Who could that Shadow Freddy be? Someone else that died in Freddy Fazbear's? Just how many deaths could there have been in that place?

Those were the questions that Jeremy had in his mind as he walked out the pizzeria, once his shift ended. The night shift was done for him, but he would have to return to Freddy Fazbear's in just a few hours to work the day shift. But hey, at least there was no chance of fearing for his life during the day, right?

Wrong. So very wrong.

Just like on the third night, something followed Jeremy as he walked out his workplace, shrouded in invisibility. But it wasn't Gift Girl, and it wasn't friendly.

" **Silly little Jerry,"** snickered a voice, as the night guard walked into his car, sighing in deep relief from having survived yet another night. **"Don't you think you'll be any safer on day shift. Do you actually believe that you can get away now, with all the things you know? Well I have news for you buddy…"**

The ominous figure of a purple shadow, like Shadow Freddy, only this time in the shape of Bonnie, materialized itself in front of the pizzeria. Jeremy did not see it; he was already driving away.

Shadow Bonnie grinned wickedly.

"… **YOU CAN'T"**

* * *

 **[A/N - Sorry, Rose Verdict, but mindscrewery is so much fun 8D**

 **Note for all the ones following all my "A Golden Opportunity" stories - the sequel for "The Other Guard" will be uploaded today! - at least the Prologue. It will be called a "The Forgotten", and it will finally reveal what Mike has to "remember".]**


	8. Chapter 8 - The Bite

**Disclaimer: I do not own "Five Nights at Freddy's" or its characters.**

 **[NOTE: I planned out the story behind "The Bite of 87" before FNAF 4 was released, so expect some differences between my version and the actual story. I was able to fit the characters of FNAF 4 (the kid and his brother) into my AU, however.]**

* * *

The day of 14th November of 1987 was supposed to be the day that marked a new beginning in Jeremy's career.

He was now the day shift guard, instead of being the unlucky sap who got stuck on the night shift, and everything was supposed to go just fine. Sure, the pizzeria was probably going to be closed down soon because of the issue with the five dead children that had been found there, but for just one more day… there should be some happiness. The birthday party was supposed to be a time of celebration for the now 8 year old kid. But, nothing is ever that easy in the depressing life of Jeremy Fitzgerald.

He knew that the day was not going to go well the moment the doors of the pizzeria opened. For one, the birthday boy looked very reluctant to get inside the pizzeria; for another, Gift Girl was right behind the child, casually hovering over his head.

The ghost spotted Jeremy, grinned and put up a hand in greeting. "Yo."

Jeremy stared at her for a few seconds, noticing she was carrying balloons in one hand. "What are you doing here?" he asked in a whisper. "I thought you didn't stay here during the day."

Since no one but Jeremy could hear her, she didn't bother with lowering her voice. "I'm keeping watch, Jerry. Not on you," she clarified, as Jeremy frowned. "That kid right there." She pointed at the birthday boy, who was still arguing with his parents. "Reason why I have these," she added, nodding at her balloons. "It is a birthday after all."

"Who is that kid?" Jeremy asked. "Doesn't look like he wants to be here at all…"

"Oh he hates it here," Gift Girl confirmed. "His brother brings him here and leaves him behind all the time since he knows he's scared of the spring suits. Even locked him on the backroom once."

Jeremy's frown deepened. "What kind of a brother would do that?" he wondered, following a brown-haired teenager that had walked in with the birthday boy with his stare. The teenager had a Foxy mask on, and he growled at some kids that were nearby playfully, making them laugh.

"The 'jerk' kind," Gift Girl declared, sniffing. "Poor Ryan. The kid spends hours in his room crying sometimes. Rika used to be the one to watch over him, but since she's bound to Golden Freddy now, I took over…"

"If he hates it here why is he having his birthday party here then?"

Gift Girl shrugged. "Discounts. Because of his brother. He helps out the entertainers for some cash sometimes, along with three of his friends," she explained. "They are all equals in matters of jerk-ery."

Jeremy kept following the teen with his gaze until he stopped next to three other teenagers. Each had a mask of another of the old original mascots – Freddy, Bonnie and Chica – and they all laughed at some joke the tallest of the bunch had just made. Judging from the way they all looked at the birthday boy as they snickered, Jeremy could guess what the joke was about.

"I should keep an eye on them then," Jeremy sighed. "To make sure they don't do anything bad to the kid. Ryan, is that his name…?"

For some reason, Gift Girl's look darkened. "Don't bother. You have to watch over the robots, remember? You can't be everywhere at once," she stated.

"B… but c'mon, I can't just leave the kid to be bullied on his own birthday…!" Jeremy argued, but Gift Girl looked very serious all of a sudden and that could not mean good news.

"You can't do anything about it, Jeremy," she hissed. "This day is already planned. You can't do anything to change it. It's his fate."

The day guard blinked in confusion. "W… what are you talking about?"

Gift Girl sighed and shook her head. "I said too much… Just watch over the robots, alright? Make sure they don't hurt anyone else."

Before Jeremy could ask what she meant with "anyone _else_ ", the ghost vanished. Was someone going to get hurt that day, and she knew about it? What did she mean with being Ryan's fate? The bad feeling Jeremy had at that moment, that something bad was going to happen that day, proved to be right in the worst way imaginable.

At first, things weren't so bad. The Toy Bots kept the children happy- though they did give him _the stare_ if the day guard got too close – and the birthday boy was, for now, relatively happy, considering he was having his birthday party in a place he hated.

Asides from the party, there was a gathering of a class going on as well. Jeremy knew that Phil's eldest son, Marshall, was in that class, but it seemed the boy didn't feel like partaking in the gathering, seeing he was not there. Amongst the children was a red-haired girl who seemed almost as apprehensive about the robots as the birthday boy. She was looking up at the sage with a suspicious stare, and once her friends decided to get closer, she instead took a couple of steps back.

Jeremy approached the girl. He knew that the robots wouldn't hurt her. They were perfectly fine with kids – it was the adults that had to be careful.

"Hey," he called, tapping the girl's shoulder. She had a look of suspicion when she turned around, but once she spotted his badge, her look softened. "Is everything alright?"

She looked back at the robots for a second. "I don't like those robots…" she admitted. "Especially the bunny. They're creepy."

Jeremy chuckled. Well, there was something they had in common – they both thought the robots were creepy _and_ they didn't like Toy Bonnie. They should get along just fine.

"Yeah, they can be a bit weird, with how the move and talk on their own," he said, to which she nodded vigorously. "But I promise you, they would never do anything to hurt you. It's their job to keep kids safe, you know?"

She looked at him for a while, her brows furrowed, and then gulped. "Okay… Mommy says we can trust police officers and security guards, so I believe you…"

"That's right. But if anything – anything at all – gets you scared or worried, I'll take care of it," he reassured, finally managing to get her to smile. "What's your name?"

"Lily," she said. "Lily Vallance."

"Wow, that's a pretty name," he complimented. "Compared to that, my name's awful…"

Lily giggled. "What _is_ your name?" she wanted to know.

He looked around, pretending to be embarrassed, and lowered his voice. "Promise not to laugh?"

She nodded. "Promise."

"Alright… It's Jeremy. Jeremy _Fitzgerald_."

Lily snorted and covered her mouth, trying to hold back her laughter.

"Hey, you promised you wouldn't laugh!" the day guard wailed jokingly.

"Sorry…" the red-haired girl said, still trying not to laugh. "But it's a funny last name."

"Yeah, well, don't go around saying it to everyone now," he begged, smiling as he patted her head. "Now go on, your friends are waiting."

He watched her approach her friends, looking much more confident about getting near the robots, feeling a sense of accomplishment. Even if he was scared of those robots himself, at least he managed to help a kid feel less scared of them.

Jeremy looked around, scanning the area for anything else that could require his involvement. Phil was heading towards the spare parts room – maybe to face how the withered robots looked like once and for all – and the other staff members were attending to their jobs. Everything was going fine.

"Sup, Jerry."

He managed not to jump, but his eyes still widened slightly with the scare. "Damn it, Gift Girl, stop doing that," he hissed.

She hovered over his shoulder, giggling. "But it's so fun! What's the point on being able to turn invisible and sneak up on people if you don't use it to your advantage?" she reasoned.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, we'll see how you feel when you give me an heart attack," he retorted, adjusting his tie as he watched over Balloon Boy, who was doing everything in his power to get away from a couple of very demanding girls, who apparently wanted to take a photo of them hugging him.

"I would be _devastated_ ," Gift Girl said. "Then again, if you died, then we could go out scaring people together! Now _that_ would be fun!"

"Not," Jeremy added, looking alarmed. "Don't talk about me dying so light-heartedly, seriously! Changing the subject…"

"It's for the best, I'd say. You'd make an adorable ghost though."

"… do you know why your brother hates hugs so much?" Jeremy inquired, ignoring her last comment. "Phil told me he never hugs the kids…"

Gift Girl waved dismissively. "Ah, you know that's just him playing tough," she replied. "Boy's thing, I suppose. I reckon he learned it from the teenagers that come here, along with cuss words."

Of course he did.

"Yep." Gift Girl sighed. "Well, that and he doesn't like humans in general. Because of how he was treated by the staff."

At hearing this, Jeremy felt a bit sad. Gift Girl noticed it.

"Don't look so gloom on my brother's behalf, Jerry," she said, though she got a small smile. "He doesn't seem to mind you as much. Especially after you giving him all your batteries like you did yesterday."

"Speaking of which, how come you're still in ghost form? Don't tell me it didn't work…"

Gift Girl almost glared at him. "I already told you that it is _not_ – going – to – work," she spat, punctuating the last four words. "He didn't have enough time to try out yesterday, but I'm willing to bet my scissors that he'll try it today."

Jeremy sighed. He really did hope that it would work. Not only because he just felt bad for Balloon Boy, desperately trying to bring his sister "back to life" and failing over and over, but also because then Gift Girl wouldn't just pop out of nowhere to scare the hell out him. It would be one less ghost haunting the pizzeria…

That place had enough ghosts already – Gift Girl, the kids, whoever was controlling the Puppet, Shadow Freddy… It was like a meeting room for ghosts! Jeremy wanted to tell others what he knew about the kids' souls being trapped in the pizzeria, but he knew very well that no one would ever believe him. He had already made a fool of himself by trying to explain it all to Phil.

As soon as he had returned to the pizzeria, he had a very awkward conversation with the head of security, which only had as result embarrassment and regret. The moment he asked Phil if he had ever seen anything unusual around the pizzeria, the man obviously put on his "skepticism face" on. It was no secret that Phil Grayson thought very little of the supernatural realm. He denied seeing anything unusual happening there, obviously.

Questioning him any further about "purple shadows of Freddy" lurking around and Gift Girl would only cause the man to grow increasingly more suspicious that Jeremy was slowly – but surely – losing his mind and having hallucinations, so the day guard naturally decided it would be best to just end the conversation at that.

That didn't stop Phil from having a very apprehensive expression on his face whenever he looked at Jeremy. Jeremy knew very well that both he and his mother were worried that he was perhaps having a nervous breakdown because of having worked the night shift for six nights. Granted, it did not help that he always returned home shaking and demanding to be left alone to sleep and that he was sometimes caught "talking to himself" – which was actually him trying to tell Gift Girl to _stop following him to his own house_. Ever since she showed herself to him for the first time, it was not unusual for him to find the ghost casually hanging out at his living room, changing TV channels rapidly and getting his sister frustrated at being unable to watch her soap operas properly. He preferred to forget about those events, truth be told… It was his destiny, apparently, to be God's butt monkey…

"Hey, that reminds me," Jeremy gasped suddenly, making Gift Girl look at him curiously, as well as a group of children that were passing by him. "What did you mean when you said it was Ryan's fate?" he questioned, this time lowering his voice. "When I said that I was going to keep an eye on him and the teenagers, you said something about the day already being planned…"

Gift Girl frowned. "It's nothing. Forget about it."

Jeremy narrowed his eyes. "Sure, because you're not acting suspiciously at all," he said sarcastically. "Gift Girl, if anything is going to happen to Ryan and you know about it, you have to tell me…!"

"I can't, okay?" she snapped. "We are not supposed to interfere!"

"Interfere in _what_?" he insisted, ignoring the stared he was getting from the students, who were probably wondering who he was arguing with.

"Fate," Gift Girl said finally. "We ghosts, we…" She gulped. "We can see things that are going to happen to people. Bad things. But we can't do anything to stop them from happening."

"Why not?" Jeremy wondered. "If you know that they're gonna happen, then why not prevent it?"

Gift Girl looked around desperately. "Because it would change fate! It would change what had been planned for that person since their birth – if you prevent someone from dying, they will change the lives of people they interact with, because _they were not supposed to still be around!_ " she explained. "It won't just change their fates, but also the fates of many other people. And if someone survives when they were supposed to die because of a ghost's intervention, then someone else will have to die in their place, and they won't be able to tell who that person will be. It may as well be someone they love or care about. Those are the rules."

"What kind of messed-up roles are those?!" Jeremy spat, feeling overwhelmed by this explanation of the rules of fate and the consequences of messing with it. "What's the point in showing ghosts what will happen to people then, if they can't do anything about it?"

"That is the curse of the ghosts that choose to stay behind," the ghost robot said. "The ones that didn't move on. Like me… and Rika. Rika has been watching over Ryan ever since she saw what is going to happen to him. But she can't do anything for him now. And neither can _we_ ," she added, noticing Jeremy's defiant stare.

"Rika wanted to interfere, didn't she?"

Gift Girl avoided his look. "I already told you, she worries _too_ much," she declared. "She wants to save everyone, but she can't… She stayed behind to save her friends and look where that got her… Hey wait, where are you going?"

Jeremy walked past Gift Girl, listening to her words but not really paying the proper attention to them. Rika wanted to save Ryan – and if there was something Jeremy could do to help the kid, then he would do it. He didn't care about the "rules of fate"; he couldn't let whatever was bound to happen to Ryan to take place. Not on his watch.

"Jeremy, stop!" Gift Girl called.

"No, the rules may stop you ghosts from interfering, but not me," he protested. He finally found Ryan as he scanned the party room he had just walked in, but what he saw got him horrified.

The teenagers from earlier had Ryan in their arms. They were holding him up in the hair, not bothered by the little boy's kicks and screams as they moved him closer to the robot that stood before them. The Mangle. She was not in Kid's Cove like she was supposed to, instead standing tall above the teens, her jaws wide open as if they were offering her a meal – and that meal was Ryan.

"Oh my God," Jeremy gasped, turning to Gift Girl, who hovered behind him with a sad expression. "What are they doing to – is Mangle going to _bite_ Ryan?!"

"We can't interfere," Gift Girl muttered, though it sounded like she was telling herself that rather than Jeremy. "We can't interfere…"

Jeremy looked back at the teens. They laughed loudly, obviously finding Ryan's panicking reaction to be funny. Ryan was crying, screaming, trying to get away, but he couldn't fight off four teenagers that were double his size. No one else was doing anything about it either. They just _watched_.

He couldn't get there in time. Even if he yelled out at them, with all the screaming kids running around, they wouldn't hear him. How could everyone else just _not care_?!

For the first time in probably all his life, a growling rage ignited in the day guard's heart. Those stupid teenagers had taken their pranks and teasing _way too far_.

He turned to Gift Girl, and she looked taken aback. She seemed shocked at seeing him so angry.

"You are going to stop this, Gift Girl," he ordered. "I can't make it there in time, but you can. I don't care what rules there are, don't you tell me that you can just sit back and watch the kid your friend wanted to save get mauled because of a stupid prank."

The ghost robot's lip trembled. "A-are you sure that's what you want?" she asked. "I told you, if we change his fate, someone else will take his place…"

"I don't care – _save him_ now!"

Gift Girl closed her eyes solemnly, and disappeared.

Jeremy looked back at Ryan, whose head was already on Mangle's jaws. His heart tightened. Were they too late…?

In a second, Ryan was yanked away from the mangled fox's mouth, as if someone had grabbed his legs and pulled him to the floor. The teens gasped and yelped at seeing the little boy crash back into their arms, just as Mangle's mouth closed abruptly. Ryan sobbed, holding his ankles, but seemed otherwise okay.

Jeremy held his heart and sighed in relief. Gift Girl did it. She saved him in time…

"What are you doing?! Let go of that boy, right now!"

The day guard felt someone bump into him harshly. It was the teacher that was accompanying Lily Vallance's class. Her reddish brown hair almost looked like it was filled with electricity as she stormed her way towards the shocked teenagers, with all the looks of someone who was about to give them a big scolding. Someone dashed after her, calling out for the teacher, but finding their calls to be completely ignored. It was Lily.

Jeremy watched the teacher stand between the teens and Mangle, hands on hips, yelling at them. He felt half amused and half amazed. As petite and gentle as that woman had looked before, now she was unleashing some righteous fury on the four boys, who, despite being taller than her, all looked as if they had been petrified.

"We were just joking around!" the boy wearing the Chica mask defended himself.

"Calm down, lady, we weren't doing anything wrong…" lied the one sporting Bonnie's mask.

"Not our fault he's a big baby," added the one wearing a Freddy mask much alike the one Jeremy used to wear to fend off the robots during the night.

The teacher was having none of it. "Erik, he's your brother, I thought you were supposed to look after him?" she spat, eyeing the teenager wearing the Foxy mask with such an accusatory glare Jeremy could not blame the boy from taking a step back.

Ryan sobbed. Lily, who had followed her teacher up to the teenagers, bent over to try and comfort him, but was then distracted by something. She looked up at a spot at about a meter to Mangle's right and her eyes widened in fear.

Ryan's older brother put up his hands in defense. "Oh please, he's not hurt, is he? Look, he's perfectly – holy shit!"

The seconds that followed, seemed to Jeremy as if they happened in slow motion.

He saw something indistinct, like a shadow, appear behind Mangle. Purple… It was purple. And it almost like it was shaped like Bonnie. It place its hands behind Mangle and grinned.

Mangle then opened her jaws, and so suddenly no one but Erik saw it coming – judging from the change in his tone of voice – the robot sank its sharp teeth on the unsuspecting teacher.

A woman that was near to where Jeremy was screamed first. Many more followed, in a panic to take away their kids or simply get out of the pizzeria. The teenagers screamed and backed away from Mangle, two of them tripping and collapsing on the floor.

Ryan was still at Mangle's feet, looking up in horror at what was happening in front of him. Blood fell on his body, but he didn't seem to notice it. Lily was still next to her teacher, looking up at her with her mouth slightly agape and her eyes wide in horror. She pulled her teacher's sleeve, her hand twitching, as if she was calling her still.

It took Jeremy a couple more seconds to process what was happening. From the screaming costumers, to the panicking teens, Ryan and Lily, the teacher's convulsing body as she bled out on Mangle's jaws… A horror movie, like the ones he so desperately avoided, was unfolding before his eyes. It wasn't like in the movies – the blood didn't gush out like in a hose, there was no soundtrack on the background, and there was no emotional detachment due to knowing that it was just an actress pretending to die… And what was worse…

… It was _his_ fault. He changed fate. He saved Ryan from getting bit, so someone else was bit instead – the teacher. He didn't even know her name…

Only when he heard Phil Grayson call for Ryan did he realize he hadn't moved yet.

He sprinted towards the white fox, ignoring the voice in his brain that always told him to avoid anything scary-looking at all costs. He could not avoid this.

"Let go of her, Mangle!" he screamed, grabbing the fox's upper jaw with as much force as he could. "C'mon…!"

One powerful push and he somehow managed to force the fox's jaws to open, releasing the teacher. The woman was no longer conscious, and her limp body simply fell over Lily, who only then started screaming.

Jeremy immediately bent over and pulled the teacher's body asides. His hands were covered in her blood, and he could see her skull cracked open, bits of brain falling off…

"L-Lily," he called, determined to not look at the teacher's body again as he held the crying red-haired child's shoulders. "Lily, are you alright?"

She, however, seemed to be determined to _not_ look away from her teacher. Her whole body shivered, her eyes were almost shooting out of her eye sockets and she stared at her teacher with the most horrified expression Jeremy had ever seen. That girl was scarred for life.

"Y-you promised…" she stuttered. "You promised… t-they wouldn't… h-hurt anyone… You p-p-promised…"

Before Jeremy could say anything, someone called him.

"Jeremy!"

The day guard looked back, recognizing Phil's voice, and recognizing the warning his in his voice. The first thing he saw was Mangle launching herself at him.

"AHH!" He screamed and stumbled backwards, dragging himself across the floor, away from Mangle. She had almost managed to bite his arm.

 **"** _ **dOn't TOuCh bzzzzt the CHILD"**_ she growled. **"StAy bzzzzt BACK"**

"I'm not trying to hurt them!" he exclaimed, staring wide-eyed at the white fox, who stalked him like a predator. "Stay back, please!"

The fox didn't listen to him. She kept slithering across the floor, her mouth wide open as her head twitched. Jeremy felt himself back up against a wall, and at that moment something told him that it was all over. He was now experiencing first-hand the feeling of someone stuck in a horror movie, about to get killed by the monster, and it was not a good feeling. His heart was beating so rapidly it felt like it could explode at any minute; he couldn't think properly – thoughts along the lines of "I'm dead" being the only ones remaining… The fear he had felt during the hours he spent on night shift were nothing compared to this. This was true and pure panic.

"Foxy!" he heard Phil call, from what seemed to be miles away.

Surprisingly, Mangle stopped. Her left ear twitched, and she looked back at the head of security. Jeremy wasn't too sure how, but Phil got through to Mangle.

He told her that Jeremy was not there to hurt anyone, and that Mangle was the one that was scaring everyone. Saying so seemed to have an effect on the robot, since she looked shocked.

She looked at Lily, who was still refusing to let go of her teacher's bloodied sleeve. She then turned her head towards Ryan, whose brother was trying to comfort him, surprisingly.

Her eyes finally stopped at a young girl who was hiding under a table nearby, sobbing.

Once the girl saw Foxy looking at her, she cringed and hid her head. "NOOO! Go away, go away!"

Foxy's ears dropped, and she looked at the floor. _**"k-kEEp tHEm bzzzzt SAFE from bzzzzt M-MONSterS"**_ she stuttered. _**"MonS bzzzzt TERs… but… I'm bzzzzt the MOnStER… I'M THE MONSTER"**_

She screamed. A loud "SKREEEE" noise echoed through the walls. Fearing another violent rampage, Jeremy cringed, and hid his head in instinct. He only uncovered it after hearing Mangle's voice crack more than usual and the loud noise of static.

Someone had thrown water at the robot, trying to get her to short-circuit. It had worked, and her metallic body was now twitching violently on the floor.

An employee approached Jeremy cautiously. "Hey… Hey, you alright?"

Jeremy did no answer. With effect, he felt his throat to be unbelievably dry. He could not talk. He didn't _want_ to talk – ever again. Even though the light in Mangle's eyes had extinguished, he was still staring at her with the fear of being attacked and killed present in his soul. He was never going to be safe. No matter if he worked the night shift, or day shift, he was never, _ever_ , going to be safe.

He tried to press against the floor to get up, but his whole body quivered so violently he didn't feel like he would ever be able to stand on his own again.

Thinking to himself "you're safe, you're alright" was not going to work. He wasn't alright. His eye twitched, and his mind felt unnaturally blank.

"Jeremy…?" the fellow employee called again.

Gift Girl reappeared right in front of Jeremy, looking sadder than ever.

"I told you…" she muttered. "… we shouldn't have interfered…"

The day guard closed his eyes and covered his head again. He didn't want to look at Gift Girl again. He was done – he was done with ghosts, and killer robots, and all of that. He just wanted to go home… Why couldn't he just go home…?! If he hadn't started working in that pizzeria, nothing like this would have ever happened!

"Go away… go away…" he hissed, starting to wobble back and forth unconsciously.

Unable to see Gift Girl, the employee naturally didn't know who Jeremy was talking to. He tried, once again, to comfort him.

"Hey, it's alright, you're fine…"

"Jerry…" the ghost robot called, trying to reach out to him.

"GO AWAY!" Jeremy shouted, pushing the startled employee away, as he was right next to Gift Girl. "AND YOU!" he snapped, pointing at Gift Girl. "LEAVE ME ALONE! JUST _FUCKING_ LEAVE ME ALONE!"

The people that had gathered around Mangle, staring at her apprehensively, were now looking at the day guard in shock as he lashed out at everyone that got near him.

"Jeremy," Phil called. "Jeremy, calm down, Toy Foxy's shut down, the ambulance is coming, you'll be fine…!"

Jeremy turned to Phil, and grabbed his shirt desperately. "I want to leave," he groaned. "Please, get me out of here, Phil – they won't s-stop… they won't leave me alone…"

"Who – who won't leave you alone?"

The day guard pointed at Gift Girl again. "HER!" he snapped again. "Gift Girl, and Shadow Freddy…!"

Phil looked at the spot Jeremy had pointed in, but he couldn't see anyone. He frowned. "T-there's no one there, Jeremy… Look, you just need some rest…"

"NO, no, she's right there, she's… Gift Girl!" he called, turning towards the ghost robot, who almost looked like she was about to cry. "Show yourself to them, please!"

She shook her head, her lips trembling again. "I-I can't… I _c-can't_ …"

"WHY?! WHY ME IN THE FIRST PLACE?!" he yelled, moving his arms frenetically as more and more employees started trying to grab him to calm him down. "Get away – I am fine! She's right there, Phil, please!"

Phil couldn't see her. No one else could. And she was not going to show herself to anyone else. Just to him. Because that was his fate. To go insane, maybe? The look on everyone's faces as they looked at him certainly made it seem like they already thought he had lost his mind. From _stress_ , probably…

But he was the sanest man there. He was the only one who saw things clearly. He could see Gift Girl. And he could see the purple shadow shaped like Bonnie that was snickering above their heads, deeply enjoying all the chaos and fear that filled the pizzeria at that moment. He could see them… He could see them… Even if he wished he didn't, he did…

" **Having fun there, Jeremy?"** the purple shadow-y Bonnie sneered. **"Keep screaming and spazzing out, I think a couple of them still aren't 100% sure you're crazy. Nice effort though, hehehehe..."**

Jeremy stopped fighting. He stopped screaming. He just stood there, eyelids twitching as looked at the snickering Shadow Bonnie.

It didn't matter. He couldn't get away from it all. Away from the spirits… They were going to keep chasing him… until he went mad…

'… _I'm not safe… I'm not alright… I-I'm not alright… I-I'm n-not alright…'_

* * *

 **[A/N - 8C**

 **I'm sorry Jeremy...]**


	9. Chapter 9 - Fate

**Disclaimer: I do not own "Five Nights at Freddy's" or its characters.**

* * *

Jeremy wasn't sure how long it had been since the day the Bite took place. Three days? A week, or two? He wasn't really counting, and it didn't really matter to him.

He was vaguely aware that the pizzeria was closed down. After the Bite, and after the news of the missing children having been found dead at Freddy Fazbear's being released to the public, that place was finished. No one wanted to go there anymore – including Jeremy, though for other reasons.

After the Bite, Jeremy locked himself in his room and refused to go outside, spending hours just lying on his bed and staring at the ceiling. He didn't want to see anyone, be forced to stare into their worried and apprehensive expressions. He knew very well what they thought – that he was having panic attacks, and a nervous breakdown that was causing him to have hallucinations. Having that outburst of anger and ranting about Gift Girl had been a mistake, that much was obvious, but it felt so unfair that he was the only one who could see the ghosts, see the _truth_ … Why couldn't anyone else see them?

He hadn't seen Gift Girl again after that bloody event at the pizzeria. Perhaps taken aback by the ex-guard's reaction, or maybe feeling hurt at having him yell at her after she tried so hard to help him, the fact is that the ghost did not appear to Jeremy afterwards. She could still be there, hidden in invisibility, he didn't know, but she didn't show herself to him again.

Was he angry at her? A little… If she had shown herself to everyone at the pizzeria, then they would realize that she was real, and he wasn't just seeing things. But what if the child killer was amongst the people that saw her? He was suspected to be an employee after all… If it was revealed that the ghosts of the children he murdered were still around who knows what he could do? Maybe that was why… A part of him wished he hadn't screamed at her like that – it was so unlike him – but, at the same time, it all felt so _unfair_ …

And the children were still trapped in the animatronics… It would be for the best if the robots were all destroyed so the ghosts could move on, he thought. Then the kids would be free, Rika would be free, and Gift Girl could ahead and move on along with them as well. All would be better… Though Shadow Freddy and Shadow Bonnie were there still.

What was up with those two anyway? Shadow Freddy, from what he could tell, was a helpful presence. He didn't attack him, even warned him, but Jeremy had no idea who he was. Sounded like a male adult… And as for Shadow Bonnie, whoever that bastard was he clearly loved every single minute of panic and confusion that befell on the pizzeria. Yet more mysteries…

But he couldn't worry about that now. He was done. Trying to help had gotten him nowhere – the most he had been able to do was somewhat aid Balloon Boy on getting his sister re-activated, and even that failed. From what he knew, after the Bite the Toy Bots were all destroyed. It was kind of sad, really – Balloon Boy never got to see his sister again until he himself was "killed". Maybe they were together now, if he chose to stay behind as a spirit like she did…

A knock was heard on his bedroom door. Probably his mother trying to get him to join them for lunch again…

"Jeremy?" he heard her call meekly. "Can I… Can I come in?"

He sighed. "Yes…"

The door opened, and a short plump brunette walked in. As expected, she had apprehension and worry written all over her face. "Jer, honey… How are you?"

"Fine." _Way to lie_.

"You didn't talk to Phil yesterday… He was worried… Maybe you could give him a call today?"

"Sure." _Not going to happen._

"Also, um… I've been thinking…" She paused, weighing her words carefully. "That last day at the pizzeria was… quite something for you to go through, so… Maybe it would be better if you went to talk to someone?"

He didn't turn to look at her, but instead he looked at her from the corner of his eye. "Who?"

His mother bit her lip. "Honey, it will help you feel better, I'm sure. Dr. Gerouge is a very well-referenced professional…"

"I'm not crazy, mom," Jeremy said quickly, guessing that by _"very well-referenced professional"_ she meant _"psychiatrist"_.

"I know you're not, sweetheart," she assured. "It's just so you can talk about what happened that day with someone, and that someone can help you get through it. A lot of people who go through traumatic events have to get counseling afterwards, so… It's not that bad, right…?"

Great. Now his own mother thought he needed to see someone to talk about his "issues".

Then again, maybe this would be the perfect chance for him to show everyone that he was fine, his _mental health_ was fine, and he was ready to move on. Maybe. He would just have to lie about being able to see Shadow Freddy, Shadow Bonnie and Gift Girl and just attribute it all to stress. Then everyone would finally stop nagging him about it and his life would get back to normal.

Please let it get back to normal…

* * *

The ex-guard didn't bother with trying to read the many credentials that this Dr. Gerouge had fixated on his walls. Didn't really matter to him. He was just hoping that the meeting would be over quickly so he could go back home and feel sorry for himself some more. Instead, he kept his faze firmly glued to the psychiatrist in front of him.

He didn't look like a doctor, in all honesty – if Jeremy didn't know any better, he'd say he was police officer, or a detective of some kind. The man was tall and bulky, a stern look of someone who had seen a lot of bad things unfold before his eyes and grey hair that matched his suit perfectly. He held a notebook in his hand, filled with information about other patients probably, and tapped a pen on it as he stared back at Jeremy.

"So, your mother tells me that you've gone through quite a lot these past two weeks," he started. His voice didn't sound like a doctor's either – it lacked the tone of empathy that one should have.

Jeremy frowned. So that was how long he stayed in his room. A week. Well, he was used to stay indoors for a long period of time anyway. "You can say that," he replied. Now that he was actually face-to-face with the psychiatrist, he didn't know if he trusted this man or if he felt comfortable with him even.

"You worked the night shift at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza for five days before getting moved to day shift, correct?" Dr. Gerouge questioned, checking his notes.

"Six, actually," Jeremy corrected, trying not to have flashbacks of those six nights. "I worked extra hours." _Like a moron…_

The doctor nodded. "And why's that?"

Jeremy shrugged. "I heard they didn't have anyone else to work the night shift that day…" He then looked at Dr. Gerouge. "Does it matter?"

"Every detail counts," the man declared, scribbling something quickly on his notebook. "That same day when you worked extra hours, you visited the pizzeria during the day."

"Yes, I went there to get my check…"

"Hm, the same day the investigation on the missing children officially connected the case with the pizzeria. Interesting," Dr. Gerouge muttered, sounding like he was talking to himself but still making it clear enough for Jeremy to hear it.

Jeremy's frown deepened. "How do you know that?" He thought outsiders were not supposed to know about details on the investigation…

Dr. Gerouge ignored him. "On the day of November 14th…"

The former guard tensed up. He knew they were going to talk about that day, but truth be told he didn't feel quite ready for it yet. That and he trusted this doctor less and less the more time he spent with him.

"There was an… incident at the pizzeria, with an animatronic biting a customer, yes?" Dr. Gerouge went on. He did not wait for Jeremy to answer. "You were there…"

"Obviously." Was that not the reason why he was there in the first place? Yet that man hadn't made any questions about it so far…

"… and you were the one to get Mrs. Richards away from the robot," the psychiatrist stated, still reading his notes and not caring to look at his patient.

Jeremy scratched his neck. "Yes, I was…"

He now knew the name of the teacher that had been attacked, at least… Keira Richards. She was married, and had three year old daughter. That little girl had to see her mother in the hospital, because of Jeremy's rash decision to change fate…

From what he had heard from Phil, it seemed like the doctors were positive that Mrs. Richards would recover well at least.

"What happened afterwards," the psychiatrist went on. "Is the reason why we're here, isn't it?" He finally looked at Jeremy. "You claimed that you were being followed by _something._ "

Jeremy took in a deep breath, ready to start lying through his teeth about how he had imagined Shadow Freddy and Gift Girl due to stress, but he was prevented from doing so by a sudden apparition.

Hovering above Dr. Gerouge's right shoulder was someone he hadn't seen in a while – Gift Girl. The ghost was looking at the doctor with a glare, and when she noticed Jeremy was looking at her, she took a finger to her lips in a gesture for him to keep quiet.

Unfortunately, Dr. Gerouge had noticed Jeremy's expression of shock as he stared at a spot above his shoulder. The man looked over at said spot, and then at his patient with a furrowed brow. "Something wrong, Mr. Fitzgerald?"

"Th-no," Jeremy stuttered, trying to go back into a laidback disposition. "Uh, everything's normal… Uh… Right, about the things I said I saw…" He gulped, trying not to look on the direction of Gift Girl again. "I was under a lot of stress, y-you know? The night shift was uh… harder than I imagined, and well, when you work so late and you're a scaredy-cat such as myself sometimes you imagine things to be worse than what they are…"

Dr. Gerouge watched him for a while, with what looked like a very suspecting stare. The doctor was not buying it. "From what the other employees said, you mentioned someone named 'Gift Girl' and 'Shadow Freddy'," he said. "Who are they, exactly?"

It was Jeremy's turn to look at the man with suspicion. "You talked with the other employees?"

"They too had to talk with someone about what happened that day, Mr. Fitzgerald," the doctor said casually. "They were just as distraught by what happened as you were, as you can imagine."

"Right…" Jeremy dared a look at Gift Girl, who shook her head lightly, still glaring at the psychiatrist. Something was off. Didn't look like Gift Girl liked this doctor, and neither did Jeremy. This man was hiding something… "Well, um… I just called it 'Shadow Freddy' because it looked like a shadow of Freddy Fazbear, you know, the brown bear robot…?"

Dr. Gerouge didn't nod to show he knew who Jeremy was talking about, so the ex-guard just gulped and went on.

"Uh, I'm sure you know who it is… A-anyway, it was just my imagination, stress from work, seeing scary things in the dark, heh," Jeremy forced a chuckle, but he stopped quickly once he noticed Gift Girl's unimpressed stare. He cleared his throat. "And as for Gift Girl, she was a robot whose project got cancelled, or so I've heard… Once again, just my imagination, nothing to worry about…"

But Dr. Gerouge was not listening to him anymore. For a moment, it seemed like once he mentioned Gift Girl the doctor got a look of triumph. He browsed through his notes and coughed. "A cancelled project, you say… And how would you know about it, having been hired _after_ the pizzeria was already open?"

Jeremy's hand twitched. Well, crap. He knew Gift Girl's project had been canceled from _her_ ; how was he going to explain this?

"I-I heard it from… a family friend!" he lied, feeling his nervousness multiply. "Yeah, he's been with the company for a long while and…"

Gift Girl's eyes widened and she shook her head as warning, but the damage had been done.

Dr. Gerouge nodded. "You mean Phil Grayson? The head of security?" he questioned. "Interesting; from the information I have, he was not informed about any details regarding the robots until they were already up and running. So, you can see how it would be difficult for him to know about any so-called 'cancelled projects'."

Things were getting weirder by the minute. This didn't feel like a psychiatrist trying to help his patient through a traumatic experience – it sounded like he was being interrogated by the police.

"I've heard from one of your co-workers that even before the day of November 14th you displayed some 'worrying' behaviors," the doctor continued, dropping the pen on the desk so he could cross his arms as he stared down the increasingly more nervous youngster in front of him. "It looked like you were talking to someone only you could see. Gift Girl or Shadow Freddy perhaps?"

Jeremy moved closer to the desk. "L-listen, Dr. Gerouge, I'm being honest here… Please, I-I'm fine!" he blurted out. "It was all just from the stress – I'm better now, now that I'm away from the pizzeria…"

"Isn't it strange that once you get a job at the pizzeria, five kids go missing and the so-called 'Bite' takes place?" the psychiatrist grunted. "Seems like an awful coincidence…"

Jeremy frowned. "Are… are you implying that I… that I-I have something to do with all of that?" he stammered.

Dr. Gerouge leaned forward on his desk. "You tell me. Perhaps these 'Gift Girl' and 'Shadow Freddy' apparitions are nothing more than your guilty conscience…"

"NO!" Jeremy snapped, feeling the same feeling of panic that he felt on the day of the Bite overwhelm him. Before he knew it, he was standing up, pointing angrily at the _supposedly_ experienced psychiatrist. He ignored Gift Girl's shaking head and distressed expression. "No, I am telling you – Gift Girl exists, at least! Ask the management, her suit is still at the pizzeria, on the spare parts room where the old withered robots are!" he ranted. "She is not made-up!"

The ghost robot hovering above the psychiatrist's shoulder hid her face in her hands in despair. Jeremy knew that he was looking crazy again but he could not stand the injustice. Was this stupid – _jerk_ – of a psychiatrist trying to accuse him of killing the kids and that he was having hallucinations because of that?

"Calm down, Mr. Fitzgerald, please sit back down," the doctor said, though he sounded more annoyed than worried. "It so happens that the owner of Fazbear Entertainment, Mr. Jack Anderson, is a friend of mine…"

"Wait, _what_?" Jeremy hissed.

"… and he had every single one of the new animatronics destroyed," he concluded, ignoring Jeremy's interruption. "There was no such 'Gift Girl', as you claim, amongst them, shut down or not. Sounds to me like she is nothing but a product of your imagination…"

"That's impossible," the ex-guard spat. "Impossible, I tell you – they got rid of her…" He ran fingers through his hair, pacing back and forth. "They got rid of her…"

Gift Girl took her hands away from her face. "Jeremy, stop," she wailed. "You're doing it again!"

As if she realized that her talking was not going to make things better, she covered her mouth, but it was too late.

"Shut up!" Jeremy hissed. "Why did you even show up again...?!"

Dr. Gerouge raised an eyebrow. " _Who_ showed up again, Mr. Fitzgerald?"

"Oh God, I can't…" Jeremy groaned, rubbing his temples. "Why is this happening to me…? Seriously, what did I do?!"

He heard his psychiatrist sigh heavily and take something out of a drawer. Jeremy looked at the object – it was a music box, a very detailed and antique-looking one.

"You have got to be kidding…" the ex-guard grunted.

Seriously? Six nights he spent, winding up a music box so he wouldn't get attacked by the Puppet, to calm it down, and now this jerk was going to try and use a music box to calm _him_ down? Fate really was messing with him at every given opportunity…

"This has proven to be quite efficient with all of my other patients, Mr. Fitzgerald," Dr. Gerouge affirmed. "Just sit back down, listen to it for a while and then we can carry on with our appointment."

Jeremy glared at the music box and then at the doctor. "I'll calm down when you actually start listening to what I'm telling…"

He didn't finish his sentence. He noticed something alarming going on above the psychiatrist's shoulder.

Gift Girl was no longer looking desperately at Jeremy. She was staring at the music box with such an expression of deep hatred Jeremy was surprised to not see the object magically grow legs and run away from the ghost. Was she glaring at the music box because it reminded her of the Puppet? He had never actually seen the music box he kept winding night after night now that he thought about it…

Unaware of the dangerous aura Gift Girl was getting, the doctor winded up the music box and then opened the lid. A Pierrot figurine emerged from inside the box, and an awfully familiar song started playing.

" _My Grandfather's Clock"_

"Oh God…" Jeremy looked back at Gift Girl, whose widening eyes had gone completely black apart from her pupil, which was bright white. She looked furious beyond anything he had ever seen before.

" **I – HATE – THAT – STUPID – SONG!"** she growled.

"What the hell…?!"

Gift Girl had seized the pen the psychiatrist was using in her hand and tried to stab the doctor's hand – which was on the music box still – with it. Jeremy had no time to think; he launched himself towards the desk, grabbing the pen and trying to take it away from the doctor's hand. It took some strength, but he managed to get it away from the ghost.

He breathed heavily as he looked back at the doctor, who had fallen off his chair in an attempt to get away from Jeremy. The way he was staring wide-eyed at him, it did not look like he was about to thank him.

"Security!" the doctor bellowed. "Call them in, now!"

"What, wait, you're fine!" Jeremy said, standing up. He realized he was still holding the pen in his hand as if it was a knife and dropped it quickly. "Y-you're not hurt, right?"

Two large men walked in and walked towards Dr. Gerouge to help him up. They were immediately followed by two men in white. They looked like nurses…

Jeremy looked at them apprehensively as they approached him. "W-who are you? What's this about?"

"He attacked me," the doctor told the male nurses. "Almost stabbed my eye out. He should be taken in for observation at a mental hospital."

"'Mental hospital'?!" Jeremy repeated, his heart pounding against his chest. "No, I wasn't trying to hurt – I helped you!" he yelled, backing away from the nurses. "G-get away from me – GO AWAY!"

He did his best to fend them off, but deep down he knew it would only make things worse. The more he yelled and struggled, the crazier he would look.

He could hear his mother screaming outside, demanding to know what was going on, and he could hear his sister's voice too. In the end, he disappointed them anyway.

Gift Girl didn't follow him as the nurses dragged him to an ambulance that was already waiting outside. She left him. She was trying to help, maybe, but she only made things worse. _He_ made things worse…

Fate had succeeded. His life was finally ruined.

* * *

Jeremy blinked. He was back to where he was, before his mother suggested he'd go see Dr. Gerouge. Back to lying on a bed, staring at the ceiling. The difference was, he was not at his house… and he didn't feel worry or pain anymore… it was all gone…

Wow. Maybe being on a mental hospital was the best thing for him after all. After all the medicine he was forced to take, he felt numb. Who cares about ghosts? Who cares if the souls of children were still trapped inside the robots? Not him, that's for sure. At that moment, he didn't care for anything. That empty feeling of not caring or not wanting to do anything was great. He was free of worry… of stress… of fear… he was _safe_ …

They had considered that he was suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Ha! Shows how much they knew. At least they didn't think he was responsible for the death of five kids anymore. They just thought he had gone crazy because of working the night shift.

"… Jeremy?"

He didn't bother to answer the call. He knew who it was. Why was she still hanging around? Hadn't she done enough?

Gift Girl hovered towards the ceiling, so he would look at her. "… Are you mad at me?"

Nah. He wasn't angry at anything at the moment. He had been, in the beginning, but now he just didn't care. Spending a month being told that he was mentally unstable and taking all kinds of pills and injections imaginable to calm him down whenever he tried to explain what was _actually_ happening had that result apparently.

"… You should. I ruined everything…"

She sounded sad. Oh well. She'd get over it. He was fine now, so there was no need to fuss about it.

"I-I'm so sorry… I just… I wanted to help but I… e-ended up making it worse…"

And the sobbing starts. Could ghosts of robots actually cry? Hmm…

"… I'll stay here i-if you want… K-keeping you company… Okay?"

Fine by him. At least he'd have someone to talk about while his mother and sister didn't visit him. She'd have to refrain from looking so miserable though – he had enough of that with his family…

"Don't forget… please? I-I'm still your friend… Right?"

Jeremy did a thumbs-up, not feeling the will to talk. Sure. He was friends with everyone. Why wouldn't he be? Life was great. As long as he was kept inside that white padded room, away from the outside world and all its dangers, he'd be happy. For now.

He knew that, once the effect of the pills ran out, it would be back to feeling miserable and trying desperately to get someone – anyone – to listen to him. But for now, he'd enjoy this moment of not caring for anything.

Was it wrong, that he cherished these moments the most – the ones when he didn't care? Maybe he _was_ crazy… Maybe Gift Girl had been, from the start, just someone he made up because he was lonely.

The ghost robot hovered closer to him, and caressed his hair gently, trying to smile.

"You're safe… Y-you're alright…" she muttered. "Remember… Tomorrow is another day…"

Whoop-di-do.

* * *

 **1992**

Gift Girl sat on the edge of the bed of the excessively white room, a deep frown as she looked at the man sleeping in said bed. It had been another of those days…

In the five years that Jeremy Fitzgerald had been locked up in that hellhole, there were days when the young man would be stuck in a frustrating apathy towards everything and everyone; others where he'd be freaking out and trying to punch anyone that got close; and finally, others where he'd just sleep all day instead of facing the sad reality he was living.

That day, it had been one of the latter. He hadn't even bothered to wake up and eat the meal he received from the nurse. Gift Girl looked down at her feet. Would it ever get better for him?

" **it's me"**

The ghost robot looked over her shoulder to see a golden bear standing behind her. The same one that had almost scared Jeremy to death on his sixth night. But this wasn't the real Golden Freddy. It was a ghost, like her.

"Rika," Gift Girl sighed. "What is it this time?"

The golden bear twitched. Suddenly it transformed into a little black-haired girl with amber-ish eyes. Her clothes were all bloodied and she had the bangs of her hair covering the left side of her face. **"How is Mr. Fitzgerald?"**

Gift Girl looked back at the sleeping young man, who snored. "Same as he'll always be. If they keep it up for a couple of more years, he really _will_ go crazy."

Rika looked at the ex-guard sadly.

"So – what news do you bring?" Gift Girl wanted to know. "Did some other poor sap die at the pizzeria?"

It wouldn't surprise her after all. In 1990, someone had the brilliant idea of reopening the same pizzeria where the five kids from the original "Missing Children Incident" had lost their lives. The same pizzeria _Rika_ died in. And in the two years that followed, five night guards lost their lives at the hands of the haunted animatronics.

" **No,"** Rika replied. **"But… I… did something… I wasn't supposed to…"**

Gift Girl looked at Rika with an accusatory look. "What?"

Rika looked back at her. **"I interfered"**

Gift Girl gasped. "What – you did what?!" she snapped. "Rika, why did you do that? You know what happened when I interfered! Look at Jeremy!" She pointed at the sleeping man. "I saved Ryan, but in the process, someone else got bit, and Jeremy is locked up in here! You should know that fate is not to be tampered with!"

The black-haired girl looked down at the floor. **"I just… I couldn't let him die…"**

"Who is it?" Gift Girl asked with a sigh. Once again, Rika worried _too damn much_ … Sure, she might have saved this guy, whoever he may be, but it means someone else will have to die in his place… Still, this night guard she saved must have been important if Rika felt the need to change his fate. "Who did you save, Rika?"

" **Mr. Grayson,"** Rika said. **"I saved Mr. Grayson"**

* * *

 **[A/N - I'm _so_ sorry Jeremy...**

 **This concludes the story of Jeremy... Fear not! There will be one more chapter to this arc before it ends, but it will tell the tale behind Fritz Smith's one night on the job. That should be interesting.**

 **On another note, I am going to start a new arc telling the tale from the Toy Bots' POV, called "A Golden Opportunity - Broken Toys", so if you're interested, check it out once I post it 8D]**


	10. Chapter 10 - One-Hit Wonder

**Disclaimer: I do not own "Five Nights at Freddy's" or its characters.**

* * *

 **4** **th** **November, 1987**

"There you go – all set."

A blue robotic bunny looked at his left arm apprehensively and flexed it. "Alright… I guess this will do." He then looked at the brown-haired man that was squatting in front of him. "Why are ya taking care of this? Where's the mechanic?"

The technician shrugged. "He's trying to fix up Toy Foxy. The kids are at it again," he informed. "I'm just as qualified as the guy is though, so trust me. Your arm will be just fine."

Toy Bonnie sniffed. It didn't look like he trusted the technician too much. He said nothing, however, and simply stood up, making his way back to the ever-busy dining area.

Just as the robot left, a member of the staff appeared at the door. "Fritz," he called. "The camera for the kitchen is down again."

Fritz sighed. That was the third time that week. What the hell was wrong with that camera? Out of all the security cameras installed in the building, the kitchen camera caused more problems than all the others combined. For the life of him, he did not understand why the damn thing was always malfunctioning – the video feed would cut off at random times, staying down for a whole day if he didn't take a look at it.

"I'll go check it out," the technician sighed. "But I'm telling you, it would be easier if they just got it replaced."

The other man rolled his eyes. "Yeah, try telling that to Jack. He already spent a shit load of cash on these robots; if you told him he had to replace the cameras he'd go berserk."

The technician silently made a mental note to avoid bothering the owner of Fazbear Entertainment as he headed towards the stubbornly defective camera. Maybe they should just let it break down – who needed a security camera on the kitchen anyway? It's not like there was any secret recipe worth protecting there…

"Oh, once you're done, the mechanic asked if you could go help him with Foxy," the man added. "The kids have gone full out on tearing her apart this time."

Not again… Fritz was getting tired of fixing Toy Foxy only for him to find her, the next day, as horribly mangled as she was before. Why did those kids torment her so much? Was it because of how gentle she was? Probably they thought it was easier to take advantage of her kindness…

Once he got to the kitchen, he looked up at the camera that insisted on shutting down for no reason in regular intervals. The red light that indicated the camera was recording was on, so, in theory, the camera should be working just fine. He reached for his handheld radio.

"Will?" he called once he pressed the button that allowed him to call the day guard. "Will, are you there?"

Within a couple of seconds, a click was heard. _"Always and forever,"_ the security guard, named Will Truman, sighed. _"You know what this office could use? A change in décor. These posters of the animatronics are everywhere, man – I say, lose those ones, and get some nice supermodels in here."_

"Well, we don't want you getting _too_ comfortable in there, do we?" Fritz chuckled. "Or neither you nor Matt will ever want to leave."

He heard the day guard snort on the other side. _"Matt doesn't have time to look at the posters on night shift, man,"_ Will reminded. _"Too busy fending off crazy robots. And don't you act like you don't enjoy looking at a nice hourglass shape. I saw that girl you were 'showing around' two nights ago… Does she have a twin sister?"_

"Yeah, met her too," Fritz admitted, shamelessly.

" _You sly dog,"_ hissed the day guard. _"Well, what did you call me for? I hope it wasn't to rub your sex life on my face…"_

Deciding to ignore how wrong that sounded in his head, he waved at the camera. "Just tell me something – take a look at the kitchen camera. Do you see me?"

" _Wait a sec… No, it's all pitch black in here. The damn thing's down again."_

Figured. "Yeah, I thought so. I don't get it, the lights are on; the video feed should be operative."

He heard Will huff. _"Well, it's not. I can hear someone talking – I'm guessing it's you. But it's all muffled,"_ he explained. _"Hey, is someone else there with you?"_

Fritz looked around. The cooks weren't there – probably out helping the entertainers as usual. There were never enough eyes looking over the excessively rebellious kids that visited their pizzeria. Asides from the technician, there was no one in the kitchen.

"Nope, just me here," he replied. "Why?"

" _Uh, that's weird. I could have sworn I heard someone say 'hello'… You sure Balloon Boy's not there? It sounded like a kid…"_ Will insisted.

"I'm sure. I think those daydreams of supermodels on bikinis is messing with your head," Fritz teased.

" _Who says it's just daydreams, you ass? You're not the only one who gets some around here,"_ Will retorted. _"Just get that stupid camera fixed, like they pay you to."_

Fritz snorted as he put down the handheld radio. He checked his phone before going to work, just to make sure there were no missed calls or messages before he went into full-on "work mode". He hated being interrupted while working.

His phone was in silent mode, so he didn't notice the alarm ringing. On the screen it read "Blaze's Birthday".

Fritz narrowed his eyes at the screen. He shoved his phone back in his pocket harshly. He had no time for Blaze, just like Blaze had no time for him. It's not like he would pay any attention to _his_ birthday. He should just delete that alarm for once.

His relationship with his family had always been strained, at best. His parents – Mr. and Mrs. Smith, a horribly common last name they dreaded for sure – weren't what you could call nurturing, preferring to take a stern and cold approach on raising their children. Their youngest had, as far as their standards went, turned out quite well – Blaze was, in all senses of the word, perfect in the eyes of their parents. That meant, of course, that he was just another snob who thought he had all the rights to do whatever he damned pleased just because he was born with a golden spoon up his ass. The oldest, however, ended up being a disappointment. Fritz Smith didn't really care for expensive luxuries. It felt like a prison to live in that house, always under countless restrictions and being forced to get along with only a "certain kind" of people.

His parents stopped caring about him once they realized how differently he thought for them, deeming him a lost cause. If he wanted to live like a "peasant", then they would treat him like a peasant. He hated that life. And so, when he turned 18, he left that life. For good.

He was currently working at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, a place that, while extremely popular with the children, made most adults a bit uneasy. Something about some incident that took place many years ago. Not that he cared; he actually liked working there, and wasn't about to quit because of some rumors he wasn't even sure were true. His pay wasn't too high but it didn't matter to him – he was doing what he loved. Ever since he was young, he loved tearing up his toys and trying to put them back together; that habit then advanced to CD players, radios and computers. Now it was highly-advanced robots and malfunctioning security cameras – except he was getting paid to do it this time.

"Why aren't you working?" he wondered aloud, looking bewildered at the wires that connected the camera to the system.

"Hello!"

Fritz jumped, startled by the sudden greeting. "Shit – Balloon Boy, don't do that," he scolded, sighing as he turned his head to see the balloon-wielding robot smiling at him from the ground.

The robot tilted his head, looking confused. "What does 'shit' mean?"

"Nothing," the technician replied quickly. "Aren't you supposed to be with the kids?"

"Most of them left. It's almost closing time," Balloon Boy said promptly. "What are you doing up there?"

Fritz sighed. Once Balloon Boy started asking about something, it would take forever for him to fully satisfied with the explanation. He could be a real pain with his constant questioning sometimes.

"I'm trying to fix the camera," Fritz explained grudgingly.

"It isn't working?"

"Obviously."

"Why?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out…"

"How are you gonna do that?"

The technician made a herculean effort to not glare at the small robot. "It would be really complicated to explain it all to you now," he lied.

"Hm. That's what the others usually say when I ask them something."

Great. Now he felt guilty.

"Are you gonna help Mr. Mechanic fix Foxy when you're done?" the robot asked. "I think he was asking for you."

"Yes, I am," Fritz confirmed, still trying to spot anything on the wires of servos of the camera that would explain why it was always shutting down. "But it will take a while…"

"I think they are getting tired of fixing her," Balloon Boy commented, unexpectedly. "They always groan 'not again' whenever they see her broken. They say the same when they see me getting near them though, so maybe it's just something they say often…"

Fritz looked at Balloon Boy. The robot didn't look upset at all, despite the things he was saying. Did he not realize that the staff reacted like that towards him because they thought he was annoying? Or was he just putting up a cheerful demeanor to hide how he really felt…? No, a robot couldn't act in such a complex manner… That was too… _human_.

"Well, good luck on fixing the camera, Mr. Technician." Balloon Boy turned to leave. "I wonder where sis is…"

Fritz frowned. "Sis? Who's 'sis'?"

Balloon Boy probably didn't hear him, because he left without answering his question. The technician shrugged. Ah well. Maybe he was talking about Toy Chica. The robots did treat each other like family, so maybe he heard a kid calling their older sister 'sis' and he copied that behavior.

He turned back to the camera, committed to finally fix the damn thing once and for all, even it took hours.

* * *

 **11** **th** **November**

Fritz was not having a good day.

The eleventh of November started on a rather negative tone, which got him on a bad mood early on in the morning: his dear brother paid him an unexpected and unwanted visit.

"What do you want?" was Fritz' reaction to his brother's arrival at his door.

His brother Blaze, so similar to him in appearance and yet so different in personality, allowed a smirk to grace his face. "Now, now, Fritz, is that a way to treat your younger brother? Have mother and father not teach you to show respect?"

"Not by giving the example, no," Fritz retorted. He sounded calm, which was a surprise even to himself. Seeing a member of his family usually brought the worst in him, at best. "Can you get to the point, Blaze? Unlike you, I have a job and schedules to keep up with."

"Oh I'm sure you do," Blaze sneered, walking into his house without an invitation. "Technician at a family pizzeria, right? Ah, the glamour of screaming and puking children, burnt fingers and minimum wage – surely a job that most of us can only dream of having."

Fritz didn't react to the taunt with annoyance. Showing that he was upset would only make his brother happy, something he had been preventing for years. So, he simply blinked lazily and crossed his arms. "What about you? Still leeching off of mommy and daddy's money or are you ready to put on your big boy pants and face off the big scary world on your own?"

Blaze's eye twitched, but he composed his expression quickly. Certainly a skill that he learned from the master of deception, Mr. Smith himself. "Is that jealousy, brother? You know, if you hadn't run away from home like some bratty teenager you could be much better off than you are now," he spat.

"Sure," Fritz chuckled, bitterly. "I'd be cruising around in a Lamborghini, making connections with the best lawyers on the State just in case my 'secret' business went sour…"

"It's accusations like those, brother," Blaze started, failing to conceal his growing annoyance this time. "That will get you in trouble."

Finally, they got to what this visit was all about. "Oh I see what this is now… Daddy sent you to threaten me?"

"Father simply wishes to get his family back together again," Blaze said. "He's not the heartless scum you make him sound to be."

Fritz sniffed. "He sure makes an effort to play the part. If that's all, I'd appreciate it if you made your leave. I have to go to work."

His brother took a couple of seconds to look at him and down with a deeply aggravated and insulted stare. Without even bothering to bid goodbyes, he looked at his house disdainfully and then left. Fritz didn't feel sorry to watch him leave. Hopefully his family would get the hint and leave him alone for good.

Once he got to the pizzeria, his mood didn't improve at all.

First thing he heard when he entered the building was his name being called.

"Fritz!" called a stressed-looking chubby man; the manager of the pizzeria, Francis Anderson. "Finally, you're here..."

The technician frowned. "What's the matter, Francis? Did the kitchen camera break down again?"

Francis shook his head. "No, no… Worse," he said. "It's the robots. Someone tampered with their facial recognition systems."

Fritz allowed an expression of absolute shock to emerge in his features. Why on earth would anyone want to mess with the robots? It was already bad enough that there were rumors going around of children having gone missing at the pizzeria…

"Wh… when did that happen?" he inquired, already guessing how badly it would be for the staff if the robots couldn't recognize them anymore.

"Must have happened yesterday before closing time…" Francis explained. "I just know that as soon as Phil and Matt got here, they realized the robots were acting suspicious towards them, treating them like intruders."

Fritz nodded. "They don't recognize them… Are you sure the system isn't just malfunctioning?"

Francis sighed. "The mechanic had to shut them down to take a look, but he'll be wanting your opinion," the manager informed. "He said it had all the looks of someone having tampered with their system so that they see all adults as threats. Their ability to recognize children wasn't compromised though. We have to fix it while they're active though, but the way they were now that's not going to happen…"

The technician nodded, looking at the floor. It was obvious that there was someone in the pizzeria that saw the robots' facial recognition system as a threat. They couldn't be up to nothing good.

"Damn… Well, does the night guard know?"

It was Francis' turn to nod. "Phil records him a message every day; he'll warn him about it on this one," he affirmed. "In a way, he's the one that will have it worse. I mean, he's all alone, facing all of them at once…"

Yeah, no doubt. Fritz could only imagine how it felt to be alone in the security office at night, helplessly watching as the mischievous robots made their way towards him…

When Fritz started working at the pizzeria, Mattheus O'Vancey – simply called Matt – was the working night guard, while Will Truman was the day guard. Eventually, Matt decided that he no longer wanted to take over the night shift, and since Will was getting ready to take on another job opportunity someplace else, Matt was switched to day shift. As far as Fritz knew, Phil Grayson, the head of security, found someone to take on the position of night guard fairly quickly. A son of a friend of his, he believed.

He was aware that the robots tended to move around during the nights – mostly to just wander around, play and talk with each other. Now, however, with their facial recognition system tampered with, there was a high chance that the animatronics wouldn't see him as the night guard anymore; as far as they could tell, he was an intruder. Hopefully with the mask that Phil provided for him he'd be able to ward them off.

In any case, that day was not going very well. And it would only get worse the following days…

* * *

 **14** **th** **November**

In just three days, the prospect of working for many happy years at the pizzeria was completely destroyed. Freddy Fazbear's Pizza would most certainly close its doors soon, if things didn't get better.

Just two days after someone tampered with the robots' system, the investigation regarding the disappearance of five children revealed that they pizzeria was, sadly, involved. The police found five corpses hidden within the building. That, and Matt the day guard vanished.

Fritz, along with the other members of the staff, were being pressured into keeping quiet about the whole thing. He had run away from home to escape the oppression of living with his family's overbearing and fascist rules, but it turned out he was working for a man who bared many similarities to his father – Jack Anderson. He had never seen the owner of Fazbear Entertainment, but from all he had heard about the man, that was one person he didn't care too much about meeting. Anyone who didn't mind covering up the death of children just to keep his business running was someone Fritz couldn't imagine himself liking.

And then, that day, the fourteenth of November, something else happened. A costumer was bit by a robot. Fritz knew the issue with their facial recognition system was worrisome, but he never thought that it would get that bad. He never, for a minute, believed that the robots would be capable of actually attacking someone. But it happened.

The whole event was harsh on everyone, but it seemed that the night guard, Jeremy Fitzgerald, had it worse. He went into a panic after the attack, ranting about someone following him around, and something about a "Gift Girl"? Fritz had no idea who Gift Girl was, but, then again, the only other time where he had seen the night guard he had immediately spotted a certain level of "weirdness" in him. He couldn't put his finger on it, but there was something about this Jeremy Fitzgerald… like he could see a presence that no one else could…

Due to the event that was, rather quickly, named "The Bite", the pizzeria was now facing its eminent end. It was clear to everyone that they wouldn't be able to recover from this. Plus, since Jeremy had been moved to day shift upon Matt's disappearance, there was no one to work the night shift. But Fritz couldn't let the pizzeria close. Despite all the bad things that had happened there, God help him he _liked_ working there. He liked the staff, and – to an extent – he liked the robots.

And so, he volunteered to work the night shift for that night. He had a plan to solve things. He would try to fix the animatronics' facial recognition system, and set things straight. He could not fail.

* * *

 **Midnight**

The office looked even smaller from the inside. Now Fritz knew why the guard didn't like being there. That, coupled with the mysterious lack of doors made him a very uneasy feeling about being in that division for six hours.

He looked around, at the walls covered in children-made drawings and posters of the animatronics. If his plan had succeeded, then he would have a very peaceful night despite the eerie environment.

Before he headed towards the office, Fritz first directed himself towards the stage, where three of the animatronics were. He ran a program that allowed him to set their AI to 0, which made them act based only on the rule of "protecting the children" and nothing else. As there were no children at the pizzeria, that should keep them bound to the stage mostly. He repeated the procedure on Mangle, Balloon Boy and even the withered old animatronics from the first pizzeria, which were locked on the spare parts room. This last action was merely as a safety precaution, since Phil mentioned to him that there was a chance that the old robots would move around as well. Jeremy, the night guard, also said to Phil that Golden Freddy had moved around on his last night on the job. Fritz doubted that could happen, considering they removed the endoskeleton from the Golden Freddy suit once the pizzeria closed for the day, but, just to be on the safe side, he set the AI of his endoskeleton to 0 as well.

Since the Puppet had no AI, Fritz could do nothing about that particular robot. In a way, that was the robot he was worried about the most. The thing was creepy enough during the day: imagine how it would be during the night. All he could really do was wind up the music box and pray that it would be enough.

With their AI set to 0, Fritz was hoping that it would be easier for him and the mechanic to fix their facial recognition system the next day. With their AI as high as it was before, the robots didn't let them anywhere near them.

Once the clock announced the beginning of his shift, Fritz cleared his throat and picked up the remote that would allow him to watch the monitors.

Toy Freddy, Toy Bonnie and Toy Chica were still on stage, naturally. There was an eerie glow in their eyes that didn't make him feel too comfortable, but he chose to ignore it for the moment. It was probably just the creepy atmosphere getting to him. Yeah.

The Mangle was on Kid's Cove, dragging herself across the floor. She noticed that she was being watched fairly quickly.

 **"M-m-m-m-MistEEEER Jeremy?"** the fox called.

So the robots knew the name of the previous night guard. That should be a good sign. Maybe they would recognize him as the technician they saw during the day.

Fritz then checked the Prize Counter to wind up the music box. Everything was quiet on that division, and the Puppet was out of sight, hiding away inside its box.

Then he checked the Game Area, just to see what Balloon Boy was doing. Hopefully nothing. Once he switched to that camera view, he was surprised to see the short robot sulking in a corner. His expression was darkened. He looked absolutely depressed.

Why did he look like that? It seemed like Balloon Boy was the most emotionally unstable out of all the animatronics, for some reason.

In the beginning, when the pizzeria first opened, Balloon Boy was a bundle of curiosity and cheerfulness, who tended to get on people's nerves due to his constant questioning and following around. Then, around the same time the staff gave up on trying to fix Mangle, his attitude did a complete 180. He started being an absolute prick, insulting the staff at every given opportunity, teaching kids cuss words and playing nasty pranks on unsuspecting costumers. The staff almost wished he would go back to his old self. Now, it looked like the robot had just… given up.

"I can't believe this…" the technician sighed, as he reached for the speaker in his office. He actually felt bad for the robot. He pressed the button that would allow his voice to be heard across the pizzeria and took a deep breath. "Hey, Balloon Boy… You alright in there?"

The small robot looked up immediately. He frowned. "… Are you the technician?"

Well, at least he recognized his voice. "Yeah. I'm taking over the night shift now," he clarified. "The name is Fritz, by t…"

Balloon Boy didn't wait for him to finish his sentence. He stood up and disappeared into the darkness, taking the balloon he always carried with him.

Fritz frowned. Where was he going?

He had no time to worry about the whereabouts of the small robot. The sound of something banging on metal made him jump. He checked the security cameras in quick succession, finding that he no longer had the option to check the kitchen camera, as Will and Matt could in the early days. Perhaps that was for the best. Considering it was always shutting down, there was no point to it being there anyway.

He quickly discovered that the robots were not where they were supposed to be anymore.

The Show Stage was empty. No Toy Freddy, Toy Bonnie or Toy Chica… They were all gone. The Mangle was not on Kid's Cove either, and he had just seen Balloon Boy leave his usual location at the Game Area.

"Shit," he hissed under his breath.

Things were not going as he planned. The robots were not frozen in place, as he thought they would. By switching through the cameras, he could see them scattered all over the pizzeria, and they all had something in common – they were all glaring at the camera, as if they knew someone was watching them, and did not appreciate it at all. The only one that seemed to be somehow able to avoid the cameras was Balloon Boy. Fritz couldn't find him anywhere.

It wasn't even one AM yet… What could have gone wrong?

* * *

 **3 AM**

Fritz removed the mask and exhaled. Damn, wearing that thing wasn't comfortable at all, especially if he kept putting it on and taking it off, like he was forced to.

In the first three hours of his shift, it was clear to the technician turned night guard that whatever he did to try and reset the animatronics' AI to zero had failed. How, or why, he wasn't sure. He had done everything right… or so he thought.

The robots were clearly not acting like one whose AI was at the minimum. If Fritz didn't know any better, he'd say their AI was at the maximum, which would be 20.

Toy Freddy and Toy Chica appeared on the open hallway heading towards his office several times. For some reason, the chubby bear's eyes were pitch black, and the chicken was missing her beak and eyes. Maybe they were making an effort to be scary… If that was their goal, then they were succeeding. Luckily they didn't enter his office.

The electric blue bunny known as Toy Bonnie was not like them, unfortunately.

He was always climbing into the air vent and entering his office without being invited. Once he found himself face to face with the robotic guitarist, there was no other option other than to put on that stupid mask.

The first time the bunny managed to get inside his office, an odd conversation took place.

"Jerry," the bunny sighed, once he saw Fritz wearing the mask. "I already told ya, ya don't need to tell the guard to leave when we get here anymore. The intruder is here again!"

Fritz had no idea what Toy Bonnie was talking about. Why was he calling him Jerry? And what did he mean, "you don't need to tell the guard to leave"? In any case, it seemed like the mask served its purpose as a means to trick the robots into thinking he was a robot himself. At least Phil got that right…

Afraid that he would say something that would blow his cover, Fritz simply muttered a meek "Sorry".

The bunny narrowed his eyes. "Your voice sounds weird," he commented. "Did they change your voice bank?"

Fritz nodded quickly. _'Sure, whatever you say, Bonnie.'_

The bunny wasn't the only one called him Jerry, though. The Mangle got inside his office a couple of times, and she too greeted him by the name.

 **"Hi J-J-J-JEEEEERRY,"** she said, her voice continuously interrupted by static. **"Bo-OOOO-nnie said t-t-they channnnnnnnnnnnnged your VOICE."**

"Uh, yeah… They wanted someone who sounded more, uh… mature," the guard lied, not even sure how this "Jerry" character was supposed to sound like before.

Mangle nodded. **"I s-see… If yOu SPO-O-O-OT an inTRUUUU-der warn US, o-okay?"**

That was never going to happen, but Fritz agreed to appease the robotic fox.

The withered robots also paid him several unwanted visitations. Those didn't talk at all, though, simply staring at him menacingly and trying to reach him.

This last time, he had put on the mask to trick the withered Bonnie. From the stories he head from Phil, the purple bunny was a gentle giant, enjoying nothing more than to give out hugs and help people – now, he was merely a mindless robot walking around through some unknown means and looking creepy as hell.

Once Fritz removed the mask, he noticed something strange.

On the wall, right next to the gap that gave way to the open hallway that the robots liked to take over on their way towards the office, there was something that the guard was pretty sure wasn't there before. A doll made of paper plates and other plastic materials glued together. It had the drawing of what was supposed to be a human face, smiling.

Fritz stared at it. When did that get there? And more importantly – how did it get there? He looked at the hallway, thinking. Did one of the robots place it there…?

* * *

 **Almost 6 AM**

The shift was almost over. Now Fritz was fully aware of what the night guards truly went through during their time on the pizzeria. It was hell. He had to put on the mask every time he looked away from the monitors, because there was a high chance of a robot already being in your office, staring at you – either that, or they were at the entrance of the air vent, about to get in. He had to check the hallway to make sure the withered Foxy wasn't there, and if he was, he had to use the flashlight to make him go away. He had to wind up the music box on regular intervals so the Puppet wouldn't come out. He barely had time to think about his next move – he just had to do it. It all become muscle memory unbelievably fast. There was no other option if he wanted to make it out; if anything, that experience made him realize why both Matt and Jeremy were so eager to leave the night shift. He felt like his life was in danger.

Amongst the robots, Balloon Boy continued to be the most elusive of the bunch. Fritz could spot the others on the cameras, but for some reason he had no idea where the short child-like animatronic was – except when he made his presence known by saying "Hello" and taking over the left air vent.

On the one occasion where the robot actually got inside his office, he somehow managed to get Fritz more worried than he was before.

"Hello," was the usual greeting that alerted the guard.

Fritz immediately put on his mask, just in time to see Balloon Boy enter his office. The robot looked at him with an empty stare.

"Bonnie said your voice changed," he said. His voice was inexpressive, so it was hard to tell if he cared at all about what was going on. "You're not the same night guard that was here for the last six days, are you?"

The technician was surprised. It seemed that Balloon Boy was the only one that could tell that Fritz wasn't an intruder.

"No," Fritz confirmed. "Jeremy was moved the day shift, but he's not coming back. I'm Fritz."

"Yeah. The technician." Balloon Boy looked at the flashlight Fritz was holding in his hands. "I used to ask Jeremy for the battery of his flashlight. I guess there's no need for that anymore…"

Fritz had no idea what the robot was talking about, but he didn't think the robot would share his thoughts with him if he asked, so he decided to ignore it. "How can you tell I'm not an intruder? The others can't recognize anyone."

Balloon Boy sighed in annoyance. "If you were Jeremy, I wouldn't have to explain this again," he grunted. "I can tell who you are by your voice. The others just trust their eyes, and their eyes tell them you are a stranger."

So Jeremy talked with the robots, apparently. At least with Balloon Boy, if he was to be believed.

"Your shift is almost over, so I guess there's no need to worry about you," the robot said. He snorted. "I bet Jeremy would be losing his shit if it was him dealing with us with our AI set to max."

Fritz looked at the robot. So his experiment _had_ failed!

Balloon Boy read his expression of shock correctly. "Yeah, it was a nice try; too bad it failed," he commented. "As soon as you turned your back that zero you programmed became a twenty."

"How the hell did that happen?!"

The robot shrugged. "No idea. At least you have some company to share your misery with." He pointed at the paper doll on the wall.

Fritz followed Balloon Boy's gaze. "Did one of the robots bring that here?"

"You're the one that's been sitting in this office," the robot reminded. "You tell me. That thing was supposed to be back at Party Room 4. I dunno how it could have gotten here."

Fritz kept watching the paper doll closely, as if he was expecting it to grow legs and get out of there at any minute. Balloon Boy left without another word, so the technician was back to being all alone again.

Despite all his stress and worries, he managed to make it through the night. Once the clock announced the end of his shift, Fritz couldn't help a deep sense of relief. In the end, his experiment had backfired horribly – if anything, it made the robots even more active. He could only hope it wouldn't make their interactions with the staff during the day any worse.

Before he left the building, he checked the cameras one last time. The robots were all back to their respective rooms, including Balloon Boy.

He ended up going through the night without seeing Golden Freddy. He had the impression that he did spot something golden in the darkness of the hallway, but since he had his mask on out of a quickly attained habit, he wasn't sure if it was the supposedly inactive suit.

Just as he was about to leave the office, he heard a light giggle.

He looked back, eyebrows furrowed, and noticed that the paper doll was not on his wall anymore. That was creepy. When did that thing disappear? And _how_ did it disappear?

He shook his head. Maybe he was just imagining things…

It wouldn't be until five years later that he'd find out that he wasn't, in fact, imagining things. There was something very strange going on at the pizzeria – something _supernatural_ – that haunted the staff, specifically the night guards.

Fritz didn't get the chance to revert the situation he accidentally created. The next day, he was fired for tampering with the animatronics. The owner of the company took the chance to blame him for the animatronics' behavior _before_ he took over the night shift, of course. He should have seen that much coming.

But something haunted him even after he was fired from Freddy Fazbear's. Not always, but some nights, before he went to sleep, he could swear he heard a voice talking to him. A soft voice, he didn't recognize. A voice that, in his dreams, often told him:

 _ **"** **SAVE THEM"**_

* * *

 **[A/N - Aaaand there! Man, it took me way too long to get this chapter done...**

 **That's it for the story of the pizzeria from 1987. If you want to know what happened to Fritz and Jeremy after this, check out my other stories that are part of "A Golden Opportunity" series.**

 **Thank you for all the reviews, favorites and followers - you give me the motivation to keep writing :3]**


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